MT India Newsletter

To subscribe, send an email to:

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26 July 2004

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Looking for MTs in India to participate in a project ...

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Dear Friends,

Here is a request I received:
_____________________________________________________

Hello,

My name is Lesly Kenney and I have been a MT in the United States for more
than 10 years.  I have been active at MTDaily since 1997 and as a result I
have become a personal friend of Mary Morken, who directed me to your
website.

I'm looking for Medical Transcriptionists in India to participate in my
Masters Degree Thesis project and also to potentially be hired by me at some
point in the future.

I have a short transcription test and a short survey that I plan to give to
MTs both in the US and in India.  I then plan to statistically test the
results, comparing cost and errors.  I'll also be looking at length of time
as an MT and level of general education.

Having taken several graduate level classes dealing with global economics I
can certainly understand the argument FOR having MT jobs go to qualified
individuals and companies in India.  I also understand how hard it is when
Americans lose jobs because economic conditions in other countries make
labor costs so much less than here in the United States.

The bottom line is that I'm neither for nor against MT jobs going to India.
My project is simply a study of the cost and efficiency of MTs in India
versus MTs in America.

I am simply looking for the lowest number of errors and the lowest cost, and
those MTs or MT companies will be at the top of my list when I hire
subcontractors in the future.

I'm asking for your help in finding MTs in India to participate in my study
and potentially work for me in the future.

Thank you in advance for help with what I hope will be a newsworthy study.

Sincerely,

Lesly Kenney
leslykenney@...
_________________________________________________________

Your participation in this analytical study is solicited.

Ciao!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
------------------------

1) Healthcare: next BPO goldmine for India?

If the once much hyped medical transcription is looking down, outsourcing in
imaging, disease management and claim processing are the new areas to look
up to, as experts say a great opportunity awaits Indian BPO industry in the
healthcare sector.

While estimates show that the revenue of medical transcription industry in
India is expected to drop from $38 million in 2002 to $26 million in 2006, a
nine per cent loss per annum, according to the National Association of
Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), by year 2005, Indian BPO
companies will be able to grab business worth $800 million from US
healthcare companies alone.

"During the early days of the Indian ITeS-BPO revolution major moves were
made towards providing transcription services to hospitals and healthcare
centres especially in US. However, easy availability of high-end services
through healthcare outsourcing is now eating into the share of medical
transcription," says Devashish Ghosh, chief operating officer, Wipro
Spectramind.

"With the global healthcare industry increasingly under pressure due to
regulations and the need for cutting cost, there is a huge potential for
Indian IT companies to tap this market, particularly in the more advanced
areas of healthcare such as imaging, disease management and claims
processing", says Ghosh.

As the Nasscom report puts it while the India was quick to plunge into ITeS
solutions for the healthcare industry in the form of medical transcription,
now Indian vendors have to work on improving their know how and domain
knowledge to tap into the high potential offered by the global healthcare
vertical.

http://sify.com/finance/fullstory.php?id=13509871

2) CBay Awarded Multi-Year Transcription Services Agreement With Continuum
Health Partners

CBay Systems, Ltd. has been selected by Continuum Health Partners, Inc. to
provide medical transcription and information management services. This
multi-year agreement will deliver substantial cost savings to Continuum
while improving workflow and the accessibility of medical reports to its
doctors, administration and staff at Beth Israel Medical Center, St. Luke's
Hospital, Roosevelt Hospital, Long Island College Hospital and DOCS
Continuum Medical Group.
CBay's end-to-end web-based platform will be implemented at each of the
Continuum Health Partners facilities. Physicians will dictate via the
telephone, digital voice recorder or PDA and transcripts will be delivered
seamlessly into the hospital's health information management system.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040713/dctu010_1.html

3) MTBC Offers transcription services at only 4 cents per line!

Medical Transcription Billing, Corp. announces a new plan to offer medical
transcription services at only 4 cents per line to all physicians who use
MTBC's 4% Medical Billing services.

MTBC's new 4-for-4 plan is designed for physicians who are interested in a
comprehensive billing solution as well as a secure and reliable
transcription service. MTBC's 4 cents transcription services will include
all of the features currently offered at the 8 cents per line fee, including
a toll-free number and a secure Personal Identification Number (PIN) for the
physician.

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&ne\
wsId=20040714005842&newsLang=en

4) Broadlane Launches Healthcare's First Comprehensive Program to Lower
Costs of Transcription Services

To create its one-of-a-kind service, Broadlane experts conducted a yearlong
strategic sourcing process that analyzed transcription industry economics,
operations and technology to identify best-in-class service providers and to
enact optimal contract terms for Broadlane customers.

Broadlane's rigorous process addressed the most pressing needs in the
medical transcription industry: price reduction, service level tracking,
standardized billing methods, qualification and use of offshore
transcription, subcontracting practices, qualification of technology
platforms, and commitment by service providers to HIPAA compliance.

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&ne\
wsId=20040706005612&newsLang=en

5) Businessman's abducted son found murdered

The mastermind behind this crime is the owner of a loss-making medical
transcription firm located in Jayanagar. Rahees, the kingpin had plotted the
crime as his transcription firm was in the red. Investigations by the police
revealed that Sheikh Rahees Ahmed (36) had completed a course in computer
hardware from Australia and had settled down in Wilson Garden in the city
with his American wife.

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/july272004/i3.asp

6) From coolie to cool dude

Manju Mathew has been working as a medical transcriptionist in a small firm
called Transpert in Bangalore. After two years on the job transcribing the
heavily accented, rapid fire, end-of-the-day notes of midwest American
doctors, she has a pretty decent knowledge of medical conditions and
prescription drugs. Who knows, in time, young workaday grads might see this
as a route to a medical, pharmaceutical or nursing school.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/665708.cms

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P. S. Would you like to share this newsletter with your friends
or post it on your site? Please do! But also be sure to read
below:

All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2004
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd. All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site
as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.

Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
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MT India Newsletter

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26 Jun 2004

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Minimum required practices ....

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Dear Friends,

The Financial Services Technology Consortium has an initiative to
establish minimum required practices for offshore outsourcing. A
report, due at year's end, will recommend how organizations can
manage risks consistently, regardless of where data is. The group
aims to create standards for country-risk assessment and
monitoring; background checks of workers; and, potentially, a
certification program for offshore professionals.

Organizations can escape some HIPAA privacy requirements if they
de-identify records. Moreover, de-identification will become more
important as the White House fosters e-health records. All
organizations, then, will have an incentive to use de-identified
data whenever possible to reduce the risk of accidental or
malicious releases of sensitive information.

However, an Illinois court ruled that although an expert could
re-identify records from the state's cancer registry, it was still
hard to do and the state should release the records. The June 9
decision in The Southern Illinoisan v. Department of Health has
roiled policymakers, researchers and data managers and raises new
questions over what de-identification means.

A discussion of the case can be found here:
http://www.melamedia.com/Illinois_de-id_case.pdf

I wonder how many offshore outsourcing entities are stripping off
PHI, to protect the medical records?

Ciao!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
------------------------

1) Anti-BPO steps: what to worry about

Outsourcing may be accounting for only 9% of US job losses and
instead of Indians in Bangalore, the immigrants may be taking 30%
of all US jobs, but thanks to the imminent US elections, a backlash
against outsourcing remains an issue which continues to trouble US
and Indian companies alike.

Taken up by Presidential candidate John Kerry and then President
Bush in right earnest, the US states have also come up with a
plethora of legislations to fight outsourcing by American states if
not the companies.

Both California and Arizona have introduced bills that would make
it illegal for health-care providers to send their patients'
records outside the US for transcription, and California would also
restrict companies from sending individuals' financial data
offshore.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/744112.cms

2) US healthcare market big business for Indian BPO firms

Indian Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies will be able to
corner $800 million of business from US healthcare market by 2005,
according to industry body Nasscom.

"US healthcare industry spent close to $40 billion on Information
Technology in 2003, a jump of seven per cent over previous year.
Managed care companies in US will consider Indian BPO vendors due
to competitive business environment and technological and
legislative changes," Nasscom said quoting analysts.

"The more advanced areas of healthcare such as imaging, disease
management and claims processing offer a big opportunity to Indian
IT enabled Services firms," according to Nasscom.

India was quick to plunge into ITeS solutions for the healthcare
industry, particularly, the US healthcare sector. There was a major
move during the early days of Indian ITeS revolution towards
providing medical transcription services to hospitals and
healthcare centres in the US.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/735395.cms

3) MT from New Zealand!

Although head-quartered in Auckland, Interscribe has no New Zealand
customers - concentrating instead on the booming American market
for medical transcription services. Its service works like this;
Interscribe's trained medical transcriptionists log into a website
where doctors in the United States have uploaded voice files of
their patient consultation reports. Typically the files will
include information about the patient's past and current health
concerns, and the findings of the physician's physical examination.
The Interscribe staff then transcribe the doctor's reports, and the
transcription is posted on the site for the US-based medical staff
to action.

While much US IT work has been outsourced to countries like India
in recent years, Interscribe's advantage in the medical
transcription industry, is that its staff speak English as a first
language - giving its American clients greater confidence as to the
accuracy of their transcriptions.

http://www.istart.co.nz/index/HM20/AS3/AR26009

4) ChartLogic, Inc. Selects ScanSoft's Dragon NaturallySpeaking

Working closely with physicians, ChartLogic leveraged the Dragon
NaturallySpeaking 7 SDK to create a comprehensive, voice-directed
electronic medical chart. ChartLogic's solution provides physicians
with an accurate, easy-to-use alternative to paper charts that
enables physicians to save time and money - resulting in more time
to focus on patient care. Traditional charts, requiring
handwriting, dictation or manual transcription, are time consuming
and expensive, and are often not completed by the physician until
the end of the examination day. With ChartLogic, physicians can
complete their charts in less than 60 seconds at the end of each
patient visit - resulting in substantial time savings and more
accurate patient notes.

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2004/Jun/1049577.htm

5) Nasdaq to delist MedQuist

The determination to delist the medical transcription company's
common stock was made following a April 29 hearing before Nasdaq's
listing qualifications panel, during which MedQuist sought --
unsuccessfully -- a temporary exception to requirements that the
company be current in its annual and quarterly financial
performance filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

http://philadelphia.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/stories/2004/06/14
/daily16.html?jst=b_ln_hl

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. S. Would you like to share this newsletter with your friends
or post it on your site? Please do! But also be sure to read
below:

All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2004
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd. All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site
as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.

Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
----------------------------------------------------------------
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MT India Newsletter

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12 Jun 2004

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When private information goes abroad ....

********************************************************

Dear Friends,

Here are some interesting excerpts, from an article by California
State Sen. Liz Figueroa, D-Fremont:

<If Baloch were a medical transcriber in California, her actions
would be illegal under a bill I authored five years ago. That bill
absolutely protects the privacy of medical information and holds
anyone who violates its terms responsible, both to the individuals
whose privacy they have violated and, in cases as egregious as this
one, to law enforcement. >

<When you consider that every one of these individuals or companies
was taking a cut of the action, you may begin to suspect someone,
somewhere, might be paying too much if a medical procedure costs
enough to provide five different levels of profit. But that's a
different issue.

There are just too many hucksters out there looking to make a
dishonest buck. According to newspaper accounts, the Texas company
might not have been a legitimate business at all, but simply a scam
artist.

The key here is to guarantee that the same California privacy law
that would protect the information in the first instance continues
to follow that information no matter where it travels. That's
exactly what my new legislation would do. Senate Bill 1451 would
continue to let California companies participate in the global
economy, as long as they make sure that the privacy rights of their
California customers don't get left behind.>

<Thus, if UCSF thinks that it can get a better deal for its
patients by letting transcriptionists in Pakistan or India or Idaho
do they work, it is free to do so. But every one of their sub- or
sub-subcontractors with access to private information would have to
treat it with the same care they would if they were doing the work
here in California. In addition, every person who violates our
privacy law would be liable in California's courts.

I want to make sure that Lubna Baloch and anyone else in the world
economy who gains access to our information knows, for a fact, that
if they don't follow our rules, they'll be showing up in one of
California's courts -- civil or criminal -- to pay the
consequences.>

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2
004/06/04/EDGN3709UQ1.DTL

I congratulate the winners in the MT India Quiz Contest '2004.
Details can be found at: www.mtindia.org/mtweek

Ciao!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
------------------------

1) Outsourcing generates tremendous benefits

Careful analysis reveals that worldwide sourcing -- made possible
by new technologies that digitize and cheaply transmit information
around the world -- provides real benefits.

History tells us that new technologies and improved business
strategies displace jobs. For example, automobiles workers replaced
buggy makers, and ATMs, voice mail and voice recognition software
eliminated bank tellers, receptionists and medical transcription
jobs.

How does off-shoring lead to better jobs? The McKinsey Global
Institute estimates that two-thirds of economic benefits from
outsourcing services to India flow back here. Firms that outsource
generate higher profits, have more capital to invest in research
and development, become more globally competitive and are better
positioned to expand sales worldwide -- creating higher-paying
jobs.

Although our policy-makers have good intentions, their
protectionist actions could disrupt Joseph Schumpeter's process of
''creative destruction'': where the new destroys the old..

The American work force is the most productive and flexible in the
world. As new knowledge industries and job opportunities emerge,
it's important to give our workers the tools they need to be
competitive. Policies supporting lifelong learning -- not
protectionism -- will help prepare our workers for the challenges
ahead.

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/editorial/8829886.ht
m
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/8905012.htm

2) EMR System, Inc. Announces Electronic Medical Records Software

EMR System Inc., makers of MyPocketEMR, announces the availability
of an Electronic Medical Records (EMR) package that meets the
growing demands of physicians. As news wires heat up with stories
of multi-million dollar solutions for EMR requirements, MyPocketEMR
provides physicians with a software tool that is affordable and
works anywhere. Using an internet based system, MyPocketEMR was
created to answer the requirements of HIPAA and meet the unique
needs of specialties across the medical spectrum.

http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2004/6/emw132776.htm

3) Mid-career dilemma...

More and more pros are now waking up to the fact that after
spending a decade or so in the confines of IT, they are wondering
whether to follow the management route or the technical path.
Some like Shivir have tasted success at a mid-career switch. The
Delhi-based project manger for a Fortune 100 firm gave up his tech
life to engage in a different ballgame. Along with his doctor wife,
the Bits Pilani alumni began his own medical transcription set-up.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/718025.cms

4) Market research - European Electronic Medical Records

In 2003, the total European EMR market (comprising software
licensing and maintenance contracts) grew by 19.2 per cent to reach
Euro 207.0 million. By 2010, the market is set to amass Euro 688.0
million with enterprise EMR systems accounting for nearly 80 per
cent of this share and primary care EMR the remainder.

If you are interested in an analysis overview providing an
introduction, research scope and summary of major findings of the
European Electronic Medical Records Markets - send an email to
Katja Feick - Corporate Communications - at katja.feick@...
with the following information: Full name, Company Name, Title,
Contact Tel Number, Email. Upon receipt of the above information,
an overview will be emailed to you.

http://www.news-medical.net/default.asp?id=2290

5) Manish Kapoor, country manager - software, Sun Microsystems
India, explained

"We are trying to rope in ISV's for building specialized
applications as additions into the StarOffice suite. This will help
us gain a significant push in specialized domains. Like for e.g. a
simple tool that includes a medical dictionary can prove to be a
boon for the medical transcription industry."

http://www.cxotoday.com/cxo/jsp/index.jsp?section=News&subsection=B
usiness&subsection_code=1&file=template1.jsp&storyid=1033

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. S. Would you like to share this newsletter with your friends
or post it on your site? Please do! But also be sure to read
below:

All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2004
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd. All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site
as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.

Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
----------------------------------------------------------------
Please DO NOT reply to this mail id to unsubscribe.

MT India Newsletter

To subscribe, send an email to:

MTIndia-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

05 Jun 2004

********************************************************

Speech-recognition vs Transcription

********************************************************

Dear Friends,

Here are some interesting excerpts, from an article in the American
Medical News:

<Internist Jeffrey Clode, MD, of Spokane, Wash., remembers a
colleague at his 20-physician practice who told his computer that a
female patient had come in after choking on peanuts.

Except on screen, the software didn't get the dictation quite
right. Instead of "peanuts," the software entered...well, something
more anatomical. "It was funnier than hell because our nurse
practitioner found the error and was just in hysterics," Dr. Clode
said. "You have to watch out [and proof carefully] when you use
it.">

<Doctors not only have to spend considerable time learning the
software but also must "adapt to the technology," said Joe Marion,
an executive director with Superior Consultant Co., Southfield,
Mich. "If they are not willing to do that and [think] that the
computer is going to figure them out, then they will struggle," he
said.

Speech recognition is "not for everybody," he said. "One of my
partners who tried it would yell into the microphone, 'Damn it! I
said ...' Well, if you're kind of rigid like that, don't want do to
proofing and are the type of individual who can't stand any errors,
it's not going to work.">

<"The real value will come when speech recognition is integrated
with the EMR and gets more accurate," Dr. Gibson said.

"It will happen, but I'm not going to hazard a guess as to when.
We've always said five years from now, and for 20 years we've been
wrong.">

I appreciate the strong participation in the MT India Quiz Contest
'2004. The finals will be held on Tuesday, 08th. Instructions
towards the same can be viewed online at the at 1000 hrs on the
08th.

Details can be found at: www.mtindia.org/mtweek

Ciao!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
------------------------

1) Program Could Put Medical Records In Criminal Hands

Ttwo years of top secret negotiations between Florida's Moore Haven
Correctional Facility and Allied Healthcare Services of Ohio, led
to a program which would use the prison population as cheap labor
to transcribe the confidential medical records of people outside
the prison walls.

Corrections Privatization Executive Director Alan Duffee signed off
on the program last year, as a representative of the state,
according to the report. He admitted to having some reservations
about the program, but was assured Florida residents would be
protected.

Residents of the other 49 states would still be fair game, Local 6
News reported. However, in Duffee's words, the program also had
another added measure of security -- the institution would screen
the inmates to find the best possible criminals for the job. "For a
lack of a better word, they are the best of the inmates there,"
Duffee said.

"The potential in a situation like this for someone's information
to get into the wrong hands. "It's actually being put into the
wrong hands from the very beginning." Ivey said. "They're inmates.
They have committed some type of felony crime if they are in a
state institution."

Certified Medical Transcriptionist Traci Lutter applied for a job
at Moore Haven, supervising the inmate program. She withdrew her
application when she realized she'd be helping inmates gain access
to people's names, drugs, and valuable information. "I'm sure that
the prisoners are not ethical enough to keep the information
private," Lutter said.

The inmates would make 2 cents for every line of they transcribe.
In comparison, a certified medical transcriptionist in the free
world makes approximately 8 cents a line.

"I feel it's trying to get the cheapest labor, looking for the
dollar," Lutter said. Duffee still defends medical transcription as
a viable option at other state facilities. He told Local 6 News,
"If safeguards can be implemented so that the public is not at
risk, then I think it would be an excellent program."

http://www.local6.com/money/3334235/detail.html

2) Electronic doctors

The one thing electronic charting doesn't do for doctors is save
time, according to Dr. Joseph Overhage, an associate professor at
the Indiana University School of Medicine and a nationally
recognized expert on electronic medical records and their effects
on the practice of medicine.

Studies have shown it actually takes doctors longer to chart a
patient exam electronically than by old-fashioned paper and
dictation, he said. The efficiency is gained by other members of
the office staff, the clerks who pull charts.

So what's in it for the doctors?

Overhage said the advantage for them is that it makes them better
clinicians by warning them of medical errors and helping them make
better decisions.
Overhage, whose office has been digitized for decades, said he
especially values instant access to a patient's most recent labs,
X-rays and specialist reports.
He says it allows him to get right to the point with his patients,
a good thing considering the average exam lasts a scant eight
minutes.

"You don't have to interrogate them about whether they had seen
their cardiologist or if they had an X-ray," Overhage said. "It
changes the focus of the patient encounter to what they want to
talk about."

http://www.southbendtribune.com/stories/2004/05/23/local.20040523-s
bt-FULL-A1-Electronic.sto

3) Electronic medical network gains support

All those paper medical files lining the walls of doctors offices
and filling storage rooms in hospitals are on the endangered list
in Western New York.
advertisement

Plans are under way to replace the thick manila folders with
electronic medical records that would be available with a touch of
a computer button. Though initiatives are just getting started,
supporters say the switch from paper to cyberspace will greatly
improve medical care while saving costs.

"The region desperately needs it," said Dr. Julian Ambrus Jr. an
immunologist. "We as physicians know that information is fragmented
and there is a huge amount of duplication. And there's poor ability
to get data from one place to another."

The potential costs savings of such a system are significant,
supporters said. Recent studies indicate that physicians spend as
much as 38 percent of their time paper shuffling while nurses spend
half their time with paper files. The cost of physically finding a
chart or file range from $8 to $15 per chart and there's money to
be saved from requiring less physical storage area. Further,
doctors could pocket more than $10,000 annually in transcription
costs if they switch to the electronic version.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5087127/

4) Blind teaching blind IT skills project makes inroads, aspires
expansion

Depending on one's skills level, one can actually copy an entire
booklet without glancing at a single typewriter key and yet attain
more than 95 percent accuracy in under an hour or two.

Furthermore, on a specialized field, doing a medical transcription
with an accuracy rating of 90 to 98 percent. The fundamental skill,
which is not a secret, is I believe called "Touch Typing". A skill,
we the sighted individuals take for granted.

The Medical Transcription, which is a new one, is for college
graduates or individuals with college-level education who wish to
pursue a financially rewarding career in the fast-growing medical
transcription industry. On-the-job training is provided in
partnership with Total Transcription Solutions Inc., a company that
specializes in medical transcription services.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040528/nyf009a_1.html

5) At Maine Med, it's click vs. scribble

A clerk, in one instance, mistook an ill-formed "u" - as in
"unit" - for "4." So the patient was ordered much more insulin than
needed. This and most transcription mistakes are caught by a
pharmacist or nurse before an allergic reaction or overdose can
happen; errors that reach the patient are less than 1 percent of
the millions of medication orders administered annually. But to
decrease those odds, the Portland hospital last year became among
the first in the country to ask all its doctors to enter
prescriptions and other orders into computers.

The number of transcription errors has dropped 78 percent in a
year's time. From January to March 2003, there were 103 mistakes,
compared to 23 made during the same period this year.

http://www.pressherald.com/news/local/040524medicalerror.shtml

6) 'There has to be a better way' wins invention award

LuAnn Takens spent hours on her computer, typing furiously and
backpedaling when she missed a beat. The East Grand Rapids resident
said she barely started working as a certified medical
transcriptionist when she sat back in her chair, deciding, "There
has to be a better way."

Two years ago, she came up with the Takens Medical Transcription
System, an electronic device designed to record and categorize the
information dictated by doctors about their patients and eliminate
the need for professional transcriptionists.

With Takens' device, doctors can dictate a patient's name to the
machine with a compact disc program inside, which would either
visually or vocally prompt the doctor to then say the patient's
symptoms, past history, vital signs and other medical information,
organizing it categorically.

When the doctor is finished, a secretary should be able to pop the
CD from the device into a computer and the digital information
could be stored onto files.
"I just started typing my thoughts onto the computer, and I came up
with it," she said. "I really think I was divinely inspired."

"The bad part of it will be eliminating medical transcription
jobs," she said. "But the savings for the medical field will be
huge, and technology is moving in that direction anyway."

http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-14/108541017
3225370.xml
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. S. Would you like to share this newsletter with your friends
or post it on your site? Please do! But also be sure to read
below:

All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2004
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd. All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site
as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.

Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
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MT India Newsletter

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15 May 2004

********************************************************

A Happy MT Week!

********************************************************

Dear Friends,

We dedicate this issue to the committed Indian MT - those who
untiringly transcribe and enjoy doing so! Unfortunately, their
numbers are limited, and that is the reason we remain such a small
industry. Nevertheless, wherever they are, I take time out to thank
them, and let them know their work is appreciated. If the US MTs
consider the offshoring industry to be a threat today, it is
because of these unknown "soldiers," who have proved over the last
decade, by consistently delivering quality, that they are second to
none. Your shoulders are the pillars for the MTSOs to compete
on quality and TAT in the market, rather than on costs. I salute
your efforts and dedication.

While the week is dedicated to you, it is also your responsibility
to further the cause of the profession, in your own area. Here are
a few guidelines from the AAMT:
http://www.aamt.org/scriptcontent/emtweek.cfm?section=events

On another front, let us share the plans for MT week. This is what
MT India will be doing:
- An online quiz, every day from 18th to 20th with attractive cash
prizes.
- A final round quiz on 22nd, to select the winner of the MT India
Quiz Contest '2004.

The Quiz will be online at www.mtindia.org/mtweek at 0600 hrs on
18th. Entries must reach us by 2200 hours, the same day.

Wishing you all A Happy MT Week!

Ciao!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
------------------------

1) Doctors' mumbles bring grumbles from medical transcriptionists

The No. 1 problem in the industry is doctors who dictate poorly,
said George Heymont, managing partner of Alert & Oriented Medical
Transcription Services in San Francisco. "They talk too fast, where
no matter how much you slow it down, you can't understand it," he
said. "Or maybe English is their second language.
"They contradict themselves; they make up words. We're heard of
doctors eating while they're dictating. One even had a parrot in
the room, so you kept hearing this squawk."

http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/local/states/texas/northea
st/8573164.htm?1c

2) CBay, iLIANT join hands for synergy

CBay Systems Limited, Maryland, US, whose healthcare BPO services
are outsourced from its India offices in Mumbai, Bangalore and
Hyderabad has formed an alliance with iLIANT Corporation, Tampa, US
to provide medical transcription services.

A major player in software, business process outsourcing (BPO) and
consulting services for physician practices, iLIANT will hand over
the responsibility of managing its North Carolina, US, based
transcription clients to CBay which will assume operational charge
of that region.

A separate services agreement will allow iLIANT to extend CBay
transcription technology and services to its physician clients on
an ongoing basis. This will be of help to CBay which provides
transcription and information management services to physician
groups, hospitals, and integrated health care facility networks.
'The iLIANT agreement is a significant validation of our strategy
to lead in the healthcare transcription outsourcing market through
solutions that combine best practices and leading technology,' said
V Raman Kumar, chief executive officer, CBay.

http://newstodaynet.com/12may/bu7.htm

3) 'Offshoring' wave sweeps through specialty services

The phenomenon of offshore outsourcing - sending jobs overseas
where salaries and overhead are a fraction of that in the United
States - is now hitting specialty services, like Hudson's Northeast
Transcription.

Hudson noted that she saw a transcription by an offshore firm in
which the doctor's reference to "Vaseline" was entered as
"gasoline." But Hudson said some of her customers are less
concerned about quality than about controlling costs, at a time
when everyone from hospitals to insurers, let alone patients, are
trying to crack down on medical spending.

Northeast charges between 13.5 cents and 14.5 cents a line for
transcriptions, Kinsman said, based on factors such as turnaround
time and volume. She said the company receives solicitations to
subcontract the work overseas for as little as 6 cents to 8 cents a
line.

Kinsman said she regularly receives solicitations from overseas
firms looking to be subcontractors for Northeast, sometimes two or
three a day. The letters are riddled with spelling and grammar
errors, she said, making her wonder about their claims of 98
percent to 100 percent accuracy in transcriptions.

http://www.pressherald.com/business/stories/040504transcribe.shtml

4) Philips unit delays filing again on billing probe

MedQuist, a U.S. unit of Dutch Philips Electronics, said on Friday
it had again delayed the filing of its annual report with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

MedQuist said in a statement filed with the SEC that it would also
be unable to file its first quarter results until a review of
billing practices was complete.

MedQuist generates just over one percent of Philips's sales.
MedQuist had sales of 514 million euros ($606.4 million) in 2002
and income from operations of 68 million euros. Philips's total
sales in 2003 amounted to 29 billion euros.

http://www.forbes.com/business/services/newswire/2004/05/14/rtr1371
610.html

5) Is nothing private anymore? By Lou Dobbs ...

In addition to those financial records, private medical data are
also at risk. Last October, a disgruntled worker in Pakistan, who
transcribed medical files from the University of California-San
Francisco Medical Center, threatened to post patient files on the
Internet if she was not given the back pay she was owed by her
employer. The same month, a Toledo, Ohio, company, which outsources
medical transcription, experienced an extortion attempt by its own
workers in India. The employees involved were turned in to Indian
authorities within a day, but the company chose not to inform
customers that the incident had occurred.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/articles/040517/17dobbs.htm

6) More companies using 'Net for phone service

In Nashville, a typist taps a doctor's notes into a computer, and
then everything freezes up. The typist punches a Nashville number
into a phone, and a telephone rings 11,000 miles away in Bangalore,
India.

Reaching the help desk is only a local call for both typist and
employer, Nashville medical transcription company DTS America Inc.
The reasons lie in an Internet-based technology called Voice over
Internet Protocol, VoIP (pronounced voyp) for short.

The cost to DTS America for VoIP isn't much more than the cost of
the broadband Internet service it had purchased through Nashville
provider ISDN-Net, said Doug Hardwick, DTS' chief executive
officer. VoIP sliced the company's cost of long-distance service to
India from upwards of 35 cents per minute to the cost of a local
call.

Moreover, Hardwick said, the calls sound better over the VoIP
connection than they did over regular telephone lines, which had
''choppy'' sound.

http://www.tennessean.com/business/archives/04/04/50352771.shtml?El
ement_ID=50352771

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. S. Would you like to share this newsletter with your friends
or post it on your site? Please do! But also be sure to read
below:

All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2004
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd. All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site
as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.

Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
----------------------------------------------------------------
Please DO NOT reply to this mail id to unsubscribe.

MT India Newsletter

To subscribe, send an email to:

MTIndia-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

08 May 2004

********************************************************

The facts re. "Offshore outsourcing"

********************************************************

Dear Friends,

A special report by the US Chamber of Commerce makes an attempt to
demythologize the pandemonium of 'offshore outsourcing.' It deals
with issues of demographics, education, entitlements, regulatory
reforms etc., in order to bring a clear perspective on this matter,
supported by data and analysis by various economic experts. Also,
there is ample evidence that regulatory efforts to stop worldwide
sourcing represents a retreat to economic isolationism that would
raise prices for consumers and taxpayers in the US.

Quotes:

* Former Clinton Labor Secretary, Robert Reich: "Outsourcing does
not reduce jobs in America. If other countries can do something
cheaper, we ought to let them do it, and concentrate on what we do
the best."
* Less sourcing could also mean less efficient, less productive and
less profitable companies, robbing the nation of seed capital for
innovation and job creation
* While politicians and media are focused on the unemployed and
the loss of some US jobs, which are legitimate concerns, most are
ignoring a far greater threat to our prosperity - the aging of our
population and the decline of our education system, which together
will produce a serious worker shortage in the United States.
* Immigration is needed to support the payroll tax base that
underpins the nation's entitlement programs.
* Foreign competitors and trading partners cannot defeat the United
States. Only the United States can defeat the United States.

Download the entire report (1.12 mb; pdf format):
http://www.nasscom.org/download/Outsourcing.pdf

On another front, let us share the plans for MT week,
starting on the 16th...

Ciao!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

***********************************************************
ADVERTISEMENT:
----------------------

MTs wanted at Bangalore:

VeriScribe, a wholly owned unit of Medescribe Inc., Michigan, is
looking for MTs and Direct Upload MTs with 2+ yrs exp to work in
1st & 2nd shift. Location: Bangalore

VeriScribe Private Limited,
No 343, 2nd Floor,1st 'B' Main, 7th Block
Koramangala, Bangalore-95.
Ph: 30617711/51104117/9880080232/9844277627.
E-mail: jobs@....

***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
------------------------

1) Companies adopt family-friendly policies

Many companies, especially in software, medical transcription, and
BPOs are setting up family-friendly facilities to help woman
employees balance their roles as nurturer and provider. These
facilities are also establishing a goodwill bond between employer
and employee, ensuring that staffers continue to give their best.

For instance Transdyne, a medical transcription company at
Punjagutta, has started a crèche for children, a gymnasium, and a
games room, in addition to canteen facilities. "My husband and I
both have demanding schedules, we both work long hours, but luckily
the company has a crèche on the top floor where my child is taken
care of. I drop in between my work schedules and the management is
very co-operative," a staffer and mother of a one-year-old girl
says.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?
msid=603952

2) Physician paperwork swept offshore

In March, four industry groups -- the American Health Information
Management Assn., the American Assn. for Medical Transcription, the
California Health Information Assn. and the Medical Transcription
Industry Alliance -- issued a joint policy statement asserting that
banning offshore outsourcing will delay transcription, resulting in
higher costs for doctors and hospitals and delays in surgeries for
patients and payments for physicians and hospitals, and putting
hospitals at risk of losing their accreditation.

As far as Dr. Cerritelli is concerned, there's no debate on
offshoring. He's been happy with the work done by Claims Power,
whose owner, Rajeev Thadani, employs 30 people in India.

"He's getting the job done," Dr. Cerritelli said. "The issue of
workers being] overseas is more between him and overseas because I
never [call] overseas. I just communicate with him [in New
Jersey]."

http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/05/10/bil10510.htm3)

3) Allina to outsource transcription work to HealthScribe

Allina Hospitals and Clinics, the largest health care provider in
the Twin Cities, plans to save $6.5 million during the next five
years by contracting out medical transcription work now done by 78
local employees.

"This is an industrywide trend that's far more efficient and
cost-effective," Allina spokeswoman Teri Dresen said. "It's a way
to improve our process to keep health care costs down."

HealthScribe, a Sterling, Va.-based transcription firm, will do the
work now done by Allina's staff, with the transition expected to be
complete by the end of the year, said Chris Damvakaris,
HealthScribe director of business development.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/535/4746305.html

4) Medusind acquires Chennai BPO firm

Medusind Solutions, a BPO player in healthcare sector, has acquired
Chennai based SRF Infotech, the healthcare outsourcing business of
SRF Ltd for Rs 3 crore. The company will hold the management as
well as acquire the business assets of SRF through this investment.

Medusind Solutions, director, Rajiv Sahney said, "We have taken an
inorganic route to grow rapidly globally. This acquisition allows
us to significantly enhance our delivery platform in terms of
skills and infrastructure. We will be the first in the healthcare
market to provide disaster recovery and business continuity
planning using redundant facilities to our clients".

http://www.ciol.com/content/news/2004/104042808.asp
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. S. Would you like to share this newsletter with your friends
or post it on your site? Please do! But also be sure to read
below:

All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2004
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd. All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site
as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.

Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
----------------------------------------------------------------
Please DO NOT reply to this mail id to unsubscribe.

MT India Newsletter

To subscribe, send an email to:

MTIndia-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

03 Apr 2004

********************************************************

Half  truths, politics & journalism...

********************************************************

Dear  Friends,

Sometimes, I am not surprised how things  turn out :)

Last October, when Lubna Baloch  sent her now (in)famous email,  the
anti-offshore-job-protectionist  brigade had one  point to make:

US laws cannot be enforced offshore. Hence ban offshore  outsourcing!

Simple??

Not so!!

Now, six months and quite a lot  of deliberations, it  turns out that
there were more fradulent  practices by the US subcontractors, than
any committed by Lubna:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
file=/c/a/2004/03/28/MNGFS3080R264.DTL

Did Newburn invent Spires to protect herself from charges  that she
was  violating contracts by sending work abroad?

And  do we see a  conviction in the US??? Well, I for one am not
holding  my breath...

In  contrast, when two of Heartland's workers  in Bangalore,
threatened to reveal confidential material unless  they received a
cash payoff; no patient files  were ever in  danger of being released
and the workers who made the threat  were tracked down and handed
over to Police within 24 hours:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
file=/c/a/2004/04/02/MNGI75VIEB1.DTL

And the reaction??

"He lied to us," said an angry  state Sen. Liz  Figueroa, D-Fremont,
who chaired the March  9 privacy hearing in Sacramento,  regarding
Steven Mandell, head  of Toledo's Heartland Information ervices.  "He
could have  said they had a situation just a few months earlier, and
he  didn't."

Some people, it appears, want to hear only their own version of
"the truth"

Ciao!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist  /  Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The  Community of MT Professionals"

***********************************************************
ADVERTISEMENT:
----------------------

MTs wanted  at Bangalore:

VeriScribe, a wholly owned unit of Medescribe  Inc., Michigan, is
looking for MTs and Direct Upload MTs with  2+ yrs exp to work in
1st & 2nd shift. Location: Bangalore

VeriScribe Private Limited,
No  343, 2nd Floor,1st  'B' Main, 7th Block
Koramangala, Bangalore-95.
Ph:  30617711/51104117/9880080232/9844277627.
E-mail: jobs@....

***********************************************************
NEWS AND  VIEWS :
------------------------

1) Nasdaq  warns MedQuist about  delisting

MedQuist Inc. of Marlton,  N.J., said it received a Nasdaq  staff
determination letter indicating that the company's common stock is
subject to delisting  as a result of the company's failure to
file its  form  10-K annual report.

Medquist said last month it had delayed  the  filing of its annual
report pending completion of a review  of the  company's billing
practices. The review was initiated following  assertions made  by a
company employee of potential improper  billing practices.

MedQuist's board of directors has assumed  responsibility for
completing  the review of billing practices  and will engage
independent outside  counsel and PricewaterhouseCoopers  to advise
the board. Company  officials said at this time  they are unable to
predict when they will be in a position  to file an annual report.

http://philadelphia.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/stories/2004/03/29/da

ily37.html

2) RP medical transcription companies unite to hurdle  anti-
offshore legislature

The Philippine Medical Transcription  (MT) industry is  trumpeting
for unity to defend employment opportunities  against any  anti-
offshore legislature, specially by the United  States.

The show of  solidarity is expected to be manifested  at a public
seminar on "Updates  — US  Medical Transcription  Issues"
at the Yuchengco Institute  for Advance  Studies, RCBC Plaza in Ayala
Avenue, Makati City, announced  Evelyn Abat, president of
Medical Transcription Industry Association  of  the Philippines Inc.,
the organizer.

An update on the  American  Healthcare System will be presented by
James Wrinkler,  president of JL Business Solutions Inc./The
Dictation  Source. While California State  lawyer Fred Kumetz, CEO of
eData  Services Philippines and eData Services  US, will discuss
"US  Legislature Against Offshore Medical  Transcription."

http://www.mb.com.ph/INFO200403124586.html

3) Work from home

Half of Acusis' employees  in Bangalore are  free from the
morning hassle of commuting to  work. That's because they  work
from home.

Acusis, the  Pittsburgh-based medical transcription (MT) service
provider,  experimented with the work-from-home model since  kick-
starting  its Indian operations in 2002.

Now, around 290 of  its 500-plus employees work from home. "The
response has been  great" said Mr K B Anand, chief operating
officer, Acusis  India.

HealthScribe has 80 of its 1,300 employees working  from home. Mr
Suresh Nair, chief  operating officer, HealthScribe,  said allowing
employees flexibility to work from home  can bring down
attrition. "Most of our women employees  who wanted  to quit the
job after marriage, decided to stay back when  we  gave them a choice
to work from home" he said.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/593712.cms

4) CBay Sets Aside $10 M For Medical Transcription  Buys

US-based CBay Systems, which is in the medical  transcription
business,  has allocated $10 million to fund  its acquisitions in
both the domestic  as well as the overseas  market. Company officials
indicated that as part  of this  strategy, they have initiated talks
with some of its franchisees in India, which includes the Godrej
group.

CBay  Systems chairman  and CEO V Raman Kumar told FE: "Godrej,
which  is also an investor in the company, is a natural ally.  While
it is too early to divulge the  specifics, the talks have  been
initiated. As with the other franchisees  with whom  we have
initiated talks, we plan on owning the transcription  centres and
integrating it with our own." The Godrej Group is  an investor in

CBay and Nadir Godrej serves on the board  of directors.

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=54359

5) For the 'Zippies,' life is good

T.P. Prabhakaran,  who  started his own medical transcription and
physician services  company, Pradot Technologies, nine years ago,
when he  was 21, said the 24-hour  schedule of service businesses
like his are changing family dynamics. "It's a stress  for the
parents. They are not all able to absorb the  changes,"  Prabhakaran
said. "Today many of us are away from our parents.  Tradition in some
respects is totally lost."

Amidst all  this change,  there is a new confidence in the air in
Bangalore,  a can-do attitude among workers who believe their
future is in business, not the  government jobs that were a route to
success for many of their  middle-class parents.

David  Iwinski, Jr., CEO of Pittsburgh's Acusis  Inc., said he sees
it  all the time on his trips to India. It energizes  him to  visit
Bangalore six or seven times a year and come home to Pittsburgh with
more business ideas than he took with him to India.

"It's  very inspiring to see the intensity and the desire  which
people have to do a  good job. They are passionate.  They are self
driven," he said. "It's  really a very intoxicating  atmosphere."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04081/288432.stm
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. S. Would  you like to share  this newsletter with your friends
or post  it on your site? Please do! But  also be sure to read
below:

All original content of this newsletter  is © Copyright  1998-2004
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd. All cited articles are  copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications.  Please feel free  to
share this newsletter with your friends  or post it on your site
as  long as it is left intact with  all links unchanged and this
notice.

Thank you for  your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
----------------------------------------------------------------
Please  DO NOT reply to this mail id to unsubscribe.

MT India Newsletter

To subscribe, send an email to:
MTIndia-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

29 Feb 2004
********************************************************

MTIA and AAMT stand on offshore outsourcing...

********************************************************
Dear Friends,

The following is from a report to the AAMT BOD after initially
being presented to Senator Figueroa by MTIA and AAMT jointly. I am
quoting relevant points, the whole list can be accessed online at
the Hot Zone:

http://www.mtchat.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=10&t=0
03049
____________________________________________________

Points Presented from MTIA and AAMT:

. MTIA and AAMT will work with Senator Figueroa in developing
rational health policy and to structure legislation that will
ensure privacy of U.S. medical information.
* There is a major shortage of medical transcriptionists in the
United States and even with the use of overseas transcriptionists;
the demand for service outstrips supply. Further, there has been a
decline of US-based MTs year after year for some time.
* If legislation prevents the use of overseas transcriptionists,
the estimated 5%-7% of the work going overseas would come back into
the United States, further exacerbating the shortage and creating
additional backlog of the work.
* Transcription services (40%-50%) have been outsourced from
hospitals to transcription providers and home-based
transcriptionists in an effort to drive down healthcare costs and
to offload the difficult management processes associated with
transcription in hospital departments.
* Of major concern to both associations is the likelihood of an
"unintended consequence" of this legislation causing hospitals to
reabsorb transcription services, thereby driving up the cost of
healthcare and affecting patient care.
* HIPAA regulators were equally concerned about privacy and
security of healthcare documents with U.S. home-based
transcriptionists and overseas transcription services.
* MTIA presented information on the level of privacy enforcement
that exists overseas and promised to provide more details in this
area.
* MTIA stressed the notion that PHI is entering a "black hole" with
respect to enforceability and accountability when leaving the
country is a misperception. In many cases, there are stronger
protections than exist in the United States. Furthermore, India and
Pakistan, as examples, are common law countries, as is the United
States, and contractual, criminal and tort laws operate similarly
to the United States. A breach of confidentiality can certainly be
sued in each of these countries, and damages can be awarded and
collected by an injured party.
* Purchasers of transcription services focus on cost - not
quality - and do not realize that transcriptionists function as
risk managers, averting medical documentation errors and play a
role in patient safety and continuity of care.
* MTIA stressed the realities of what is happening in the State of
California right now relative to the treatment of PHI. Namely, that
a very low percentage of the work is being outsourced offshore, but
a very high percentage is done by at-home transcriptionists
(whether in-sourced or outsourced) whose practices with PHI are
likely to be no better than anyone else's. Moreover, a large
percentage of work is outsourced domestically, but outside state
lines. Hence, any legislative initiative that served to "box in"
PHI within state boundaries could, in effect, eliminate domestic
jobs and increase inefficiencies within the state health care
system.
____________________________________________________

To quote Skip Conover, President of CBay Systems: "Let us be clear
that offshore contractors have as much reason as anyone to defend
our confidential healthcare information, to protect their own
businesses - enlightened self interest.  Further, each offshore
contractor does have at its disposal very strong criminal and civil
laws to protect the privacy of individuals, even Americans.  In
fact, according to the National Association of Software and
Services Companies (NASSCOM), the privacy of every individual and
corporate entity in the World is assured by Article 21 of the
Indian Constitution-not only the privacy of Indians.  This is a
stronger protection than even exists in the United States.
Furthermore, India and Pakistan are common law countries, as is the
United States, and contractual, criminal and tort law operate
similarly to the United States.  A breach of confidentiality can
certainly be sued in each of these countries, and damages can be
awarded and collected by an injured party."

I think you will all be interested in the article Skip wrote about
offshore transcription, which is to appear in the March 1, 2004
edition of Advance for HIM Professionals, i.e. tomorrow...

In the meantime, let us prepare ourselves - Senator Figueroa's open
forum is scheduled for Tuesday, March 9, 2004 at the State Capitol,
Room 2040 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Ciao!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

***********************************************************
ADVERTISEMENT:
----------------------

Opportunities at Hyderabad:

Worldtech is a 6 years young leader in MT and allied services
looking for skilled MTs and proofreaders who are either relocating
to Hyderabad or are desirous of relocating to Hyderabad.  Hyderabad
based proofreaders and MTs also welcome. Compensation at par with
industry standards.  Should be able to handle 1500 to 2000 lines of
client ready work per day for a variety of specialties and work
types. Home based options available upon meeting initial onsite
performance criterion.  Recruitment as per IAMR guidelines.

Resumes and testimonials to be sent to Sucharita at Worldtech, MGR
estates, Saibaba Temple Road, Punjagutta, Hyderabad 500082.  Tel#
040-2335-2698/2335-2700 email contactus@...

***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
------------------------

1) Medical transcription may have to take a bitter pill

Suresh Nair, COO of Health-Scribe, a leading healthcare call centre
in India , says the IT Act of 2000 has provision of prosecuting
individuals for leaking out information. The Indian government is
also planning to introduce a legislation for providing legal
safeguards to ensure data privacy protection in India . "The
chances of this bill becoming a law are nil. The US firms are
sending healthcare work here due to quality of work done here,'' he
added.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-469338,curpg-2
.cms

2) Highflier settles down in new firm

New-economy mantras such as "get big fast" and "seize first-mover
advantage" seem like tarnished relics of a defunct era, but not
long ago they worked well enough to make John Weiss a millionaire.

Weiss, a Kenosha entrepreneur, joined three co-founders in 1995 at
an Internet start-up that eventually became yesmail.com. Before
selling the Chicago-area company for more than $700 million in
March 2000, they ran the business with a go-for-broke style that
brought rapid change, massive growth and eventual success.

The company has blended its Web-based technology with a global
network of medical transcription teams in places such as India and
the Philippines, allowing for some dictated records to be
transcribed overnight.

Scribe is drawing on numerous lessons taught by the yesmail.com
experience.

http://www.jsonline.com/bym/news/feb04/210967.asp

3) Hewitt to expand India operations

Even as the backlash against Indian BPO activities continues in the
West, the outsourcing buzz is adding sound wattage. After IT,
medical transcription, equity and legal research, it is the human
resource function which is adding colours to the Indian BPO flag.

Global HR consultancy and outsourcing firm Hewitt Associates is
doubling the headcount of its Indian operations engaged in
international outsourcing services for its global clients.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/491259.cms

4) Staging the great rebalancing act

By the end of this year, 10 per cent of jobs in America's computer
and software services industries will have gone overseas, mainly to
India, China, Pakistan, Jamaica, Argentina and the Philippines.

American tax returns, complete with the sacred social security
number that is the key to official proof of identity, will be
completed offshore. So will the transcription of medical records,
the processing of insurance claims, and the answering of hundreds
of thousands of queries for every conceivable type of service, from
local government welfare in New Jersey, to Dell upgrades, to Yahoo
technical support.

On its own, offshore outsourcing would have been only a detail in
the much larger US unemployment picture, with 2.9 million jobs lost
in the past three years. But that was before Gregory Mankiw,
chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, offered
this explanation: "Outsourcing is just a new way of doing
international trade. More things are tradeable than were tradeable
in the past and this a good thing." This implicit support of
outsourcing came in the council's annual report.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/02/20/1077072841572.html

5) Medical Transcription Funnies

A self-proclaimed junkie when it comes to being plugged into his
transcription equipment - the keyboard, headset and foot pedals -
Dillon has created a cottage industry out of the humor to be found
on his transcription tapes.

His book, "Just What the Doctor . Dictated!: Ten Years of Medical
Transcription Funnies" details some of the funnier moments in his
10 years as a transcriptionist.

"Some doctors forget to tell you the patient's name," Dillon said.
"Sometimes, they lean away to reach something and forget that they
have leaned away from the microphone, too."

There are times, he added, that the physician may "goof up or the
patient has a freakish complaint or accident and you get a great
big chuckle out of it. That breaks the monotony, and, sometimes, it
even helps you write a book."

http://www.timesdaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040202/NEWS/
402020333/1011

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. S. Would you like to share this  newsletter with your friends
or post  it on your site?  Please do! But also be sure to read
below:

All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2004
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd.  All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site
as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.

Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
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MT India Newsletter

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21 Feb 2004
********************************************************

Jobs and Privacy at Risk??

********************************************************
Dear Friends,

It is unfortunate, but predictable... Every time we hear that
there is a risk to privacy of US citizens' medical records from
offshore MT service providers, beyond that voice is a stronger
advocacy of protecting jobs!

Let us take Sen. Liz Figueroa, D-Fremont's proposed bill, for
example. In October last year, she said her bill would prohibit
anyone possessing information involving California patients from
sending that information abroad. "We're not banning the practice of
overseas workers doing transcription," Figueroa said. "But we can
regulate the practice of medicine within California. " "The
interesting thing will be to see where our new governor stands on
privacy issues," Figueroa said then. "At this point, we don't
know."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/10/26/BUGIN2J
2A01.DTL

Four months later, her rallying focus appears to have shifted. As a
Silicon Valley representative, Figueroa now says she is keenly
aware of the repercussions caused when good California jobs are
sent overseas, diminishing the state's job base, decreasing state
tax revenues and increasing government expenditures for displaced
workers.

The senator on Friday introduced a legislation package aimed at
stemming the loss of more jobs to overseas companies and is calling
for an open forum to examine the scope and breadth of how
off-shoring jobs impacts the state. "Californians are at risk as
more and more companies shift their labor force to developing
countries," she said.

Equally troubling, Figueroa says, are recent reports that even
state contracts are being sent overseas.

In preparation for next month's hearing, "Outsourcing California:
Our Jobs and Privacy at Risk," Figueroa has called on national
experts in economics, business, international affairs and labor, as
well as educational leaders.

"As policymakers, we must encourage and assist all companies
operating in California to find the means for keeping jobs in the
state," she said. "We cannot afford to sit idle and must
aggressively find a workable solution to keeping these jobs here at
home."

http://www.smdailyjournal.org/article.cfm?issue=02-21-04&storyID=28
325

California based entities - please make your presence felt at the
forum on March 9!!

Ciao!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

***********************************************************
ADVERTISEMENT:
----------------------

MTs wanted at Bangalore:

VeriScribe, a wholly owned unit of Medescribe Inc., Michigan, is
looking for MTs and Direct Upload MTs with 2+ yrs exp to work in
1st & 2nd shift. Location: Bangalore

VeriScribe Private Limited,
No 343, 2nd Floor,1st 'B' Main, 7th Block
Koramangala, Bangalore-95.
Ph: 30617711/51104117/9880080232/9844277627.
E-mail: jobs@....

***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
------------------------

1) Unlikely Offshoring Supporter

You may have seen the McKinsey Global Institute report that for
each dollar the United States sends to India in the form of
offshore jobs, the U.S. economy gains $1.14. A more unlikely voice
in favor of offshoring arrived this week in the usually liberal
magazine The New Republic. The New Republic article argues that
"while offshoring may displace some workers in the short term, in
the medium and long terms it represents a net benefit for both
domestic businesses and their workers."

http://www.workforce.com/section/00/article/23/63/39.html

2) Outsourcing is bigger than Bennington, experts say

The disclosure that Southwestern Vermont Medical Center is looking
into outsourcing some of its transcription work overseas is part of
a much wider trend in the nation's economy, experts say.

The hospital's goal is to get its transcription costs down to the
industry average of about 13 cents per line, which would save
approximately $175,000 annually, said Kevin Robinson, spokesman for
the hospital.

Currently, the costs work out to be about 18 cents a line. But cost
isn't the only factor driving the process, he said.

"There are not enough trained personnel available, especially for
weekends," he said. "But we can't outsource the whole department.
We need to hold onto at least seven employees for rapid turnaround
situations."

Focus M.T., based in Clifton Park, N.Y., is the company pitching to
get the rest of the hospital's transcription business.

The company's president, Abbas Mousavi, said it was premature to
say whether agreement would be struck.

If his company gets the job then the data would be sent - by a
secure line to prevent tampering - overseas to a center in India,
he said.

http://www.benningtonbanner.com/Stories/0,1413,104~8678~1936487,00.
html

3) Growing trend to outsource

The US-based outsourced medical transcription company HealthScribe
Inc. is all set to make India a hub to get into other services,
taking advantage of high-quality offshore capability and will
recruit 500 people in the country this year.

"HealthScribe's increased equity stake in HealthScribe India is a
key component of our growth strategy," David E Ehrhardt, president
and COO, HealthScribe said. The development of resources both in
the US, where the company has around 800 employees and in India was
critical to HealthScribe's growth, he added. HealthScribe hopes to
have $50m in revenues next year.

According to Suresh Nair, chief operating officer, Max
HealthScribe, the company expects the volume of transaction it
handles to grow by 50% in '04.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/452607.cms

4) Health, wealth, outsourcing

Over 300 of the Fortune 500 companies today outsource some part of
their technology and business processes to India. Almost 50 per
cent of these are healthcare players. Over 60 per cent of global
healthcare companies will outsource more than half of their IT
operations by 2007, says a Gartner study. According to industry
observers, India has the potential to attract a major chunk of
these outsourcing contracts. The recent multinational healthcare
entrants Accenture, EDS, CGEY, FCG, Keane and IBM are on hiring
spree in India, offering an average salary entry level salary of
$8,000 per annum. According to Saji Salam, chairman,Health Level
Seven India, the healthcare opportunity includes a gamut of
services like insurance claims processing, adjudication,
receivables management, medical transcription, billing and coding
services.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/431516.cms

5) Acusis Hosts Successful Transcription Innovators' Summit

Acusis recently hosted the Company's first annual Transcription
Innovators' Summit at the Saddlebrook Resort in Tampa, Florida. The
event was designed to provide an open forum for customers and
industry colleagues to discuss pertinent industry issues and to
exchange ideas on medical records, patient data and transcription
trends.

To further understanding in the industry regarding Acusis
operations protocols as they relate to the Company as an offshore
outsourced medical transcription provider, three industry
colleagues were randomly selected for trips to the Company's
operations in India for a comprehensive inspection of the Acusis
facilities there.

As one participant commented, "Each presentation contained valuable
information applicable to my organization." Some focused more on
the India presentation, impressed by the precision with which some
issues are handled, including security and the attention to detail
with individual transcriptions while others appreciated the "great
ideas" regarding the future vision of transcription and HIPAA "at
home" compliance.

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId
=news_view&newsId=20040216005199&newsLang=en

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. S. Would you like to share this  newsletter with your friends
or post  it on your site?  Please do! But also be sure to read
below:

All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2004
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd.  All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site
as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.

Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
----------------------------------------------------------------
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MT India Newsletter

To subscribe, send an email to:
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31 Jan 2004
********************************************************

Multiplying with networking...

********************************************************
Dear Friends,

Our MTIndia community in its present form is about five years old,
though some associations within the family are a lot older,
established as these were, during the emids days. During this
period, there has been a tremendous response from the members,
bouquets and brickbats included. Your response has brought to us a
sense of achievement and also apprehensions arising out of a very
high degree of expectations generated.

Amidst all this, our driving force, consistently, has been a
passion towards creating a strong community wherein each one of us
is better informed, better networked; and hence better equipped.
Networking is as old as time. Inherent is the idea that we need not
do everything ourselves and re-invent the wheel over and again. We
can all mutually benefit from the experiences and knowledge of
others. It is not a new practice to any of us. We network all the
time. The question is, "how far do you want to go with it?" Time
management and personal productivity are significantly enhanced
when we use the concept seriously and methodically practice the
concept.

My own success in business has come to me largely through
networking and the good cooperation of other people, although, like
the cobbler's son who had no shoes, I sometimes fail to follow my
own advice. When I started my business I thought I was a genius.
After all, I had the education and degrees :o) I then proceeded to
do every bone-headed thing imaginable, wasting precious resources
of time and money until I began to practice what I preached and
reached out to others who were already successful in my field.

I learned how to market and promote my business and how to
manage it effectively as well. Through the generous help of others,
I stopped spinning my wheels learning the errors that others had
already learned. I now spend a good amount of my time helping
newbies to succeed sharing the information that I have received,
adding in my own successes.

And that is the essence of networking because networking is not a
selfish technique, just drawing from the well. It is consistently
helping to fill the well. Not only taking but giving back. The more
help you offer others, the more you get in return.

Towards this end, we at MTIndia strongly believe that the active
involvement of members of the community will go a long way in
promoting the profession and the Industry. We approach you to make
your presence felt.

We are presently looking for pro-active leaders - dedicated
professionals with a passion for this profession, who would
volunteer to take up the reins at local chapters and support goups
@ MTIindia. We look forward to hearing from you.

On a different note, we would like to inform you that the Jobs
Newsletter will now be regularly published from Friday the 13th ...
well . . . of February!!!

Ciao!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

"Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality!"

***********************************************************
ADVERTISEMENT:
----------------------

MTs wanted at Bangalore:

VeriScribe, a wholly owned unit of Medescribe Inc., Michigan, is
looking for MTs and Direct Upload MTs with 2+ yrs exp to work in
1st & 2nd shift. Location: Bangalore

VeriScribe Private Limited,
No 343, 2nd Floor,1st 'B' Main, 7th Block
Koramangala, Bangalore-95.
Ph: 30617711/51104117/9880080232/9844277627.
E-mail: jobs@....

***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
------------------------

1) HealthScribe buys out Indian arm

U.S. medical transcription firm HealthScribe Inc said on Thursday
it had bought out a majority stake in its Indian operations from
its local partner and aims to make the nation a hub for its global
expansion.

David Ehrhardt, president and chief operating officer of
HealthScribe, told a news conference in Bangalore the company had
paid about $10 million for a 65 percent stake in the Indian unit
from diversified firm Max India, raising its stake to 85 percent.

"HealthScribe's increased equity stake in HealthScribe India is key
component of our growth strategy," Ehrhardt said.

The Indian unit, which clocked sales of nearly $10 million in 2003,
expects to boost revenue by 30 to 40 percent this year and hire 500
people, taking its total staff size to 1,700.

http://www.reuters.com/locales/newsArticle.jsp;:4019177a:92ed899069
5c16b5?type=technologyNews&locale=en_IN&storyID=4239093

2) India sees bright side to US outsourcing threat

Although the US bill could dam up a lucrative portion of the flow
of BPO contracts, for the country's close to $4 billion
revenue-a-year IT-enabled services sector, slated to grow at 54
percent this year, $511 million is surely not a large enough chunk
to be overly worried about. Moreover, NASSCOM's Karnik says that
since the bill is limited to a period up to September 2004, and
that it only covers contracts by government departments, its impact
in numerical terms will be "small because the share of US federal
government contracts in exports of IT software and services from
India is less than 2 percent".

Industry sources also add that sectors such as medical
transcriptions, which depend heavily on third party contractors,
have no cause for worry either. In this sector, the major chunk of
the work flows to India from third parties. For example, says
Suresh Nair of HealthScribe, one of the largest medical
transcription companies, "most hospitals in the US are under
private control and the bill does not seek to debar third party US
contractors from outsourcing work to Indian medical
transcriptions".

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/FA27Df06.html

3) U.S. Ban on Outsourcing Smacks of Unfair Policies - India

While a new U.S. federal law banning the outsourcing of government
contracts will not seriously hurt Indian companies, it will
certainly affect trade negotiations at the World Trade Organisation
(WTO), warn political and business leaders here.

The growth in outsourcing to countries like India - of services
such as accounting, billing, transcription, call centres, medical
transcription and diagnosis, number-crunching, administration and
anything that is information technology-enabled - reflects a desire
by big companies and the U.S. government to save on costs at home.

''They expect India and other countries to open up our markets. But
when it comes to accessing their services sector they bring in
anti-outsourcing laws,'' said Arun Shourie, India's minister for
information technology and telecommunications, reacting to laws
passed by the U.S. Senate on Jan. 22.

Shourie said he believed the new law now adopted by eight U.S.
states was a shortsighted move enacted in an election year in the
United States-- and one that would hurt the U.S. economy more than
any other country.

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=22133

4) Outsourced and out of control?

Large-scale outsourcing is growing at a frenetic pace around the
globe. Many outsourced jobs involve countries where significant
privacy laws do not exist; even if those laws are improved under
pressure of potential lost business, effective enforcement would
still appear to be highly problematic. Customer service outsourcing
can give risky access to data such as names, addresses, Social
Security numbers, telephone call records, and medical information.
Recently, a Pakistani subcontract worker threatened to post US
patients' medical data on the web if claimed back pay was not
forthcoming.

There are many fine workers performing outsourced tasks around the
world. Yet, it is more difficult to maintain control over customer
information, security, development, and other critical issues, when
work is performed distantly or under completely different laws. The
opportunities for errors, mischief, and serious misdeeds are
alarming, to say the least. Businesses and governments need to
carefully consider the manners in which outsourcing can be
reasonably exploited, and how it must be controlled.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/01/29/1075088126639.html

5) Research firms highlight hot trends in outsourcing

For the past two years the Philippine government has been promoting
the country's Information Technology outsourcing and sub
contracting services to attract foreign investment and address the
local unemployment woes.

During 2003, e-Services Philippines 2003 highlighted Animation and
Graphic Design, Business Process Outsourcing, Customer Contact
Services, Medical Transcription and software development.

Boston-based The Yankee Group, a global leader in communications
and networking research and consulting, in a recent news report
said:

"India is the largest offshore destination for global enterprises,
but even with its explosive growth during the past six years, it
constitutes less than 2 percent of the total world IT services
marketplace and its IT professional workforce is less than 10
percent of the size of the US IT workforce.

"Other offshore centers such as Mexico, China, Ireland, Malaysia,
the Philippines and Eastern Europe are much smaller markets with
less developed industry infrastructure."

"The vendor's brand is the ultimate guarantee that the client is
buying into. Once sufficient care has been taken to ensure
continuity in the event of disruption for whatever reason, the
client should be free to manage matters of more immediate
importance for their businesses.

http://www.mb.com.ph/INFO20040124586.html

6) Showcase of IT

From the initial breeze of high expectations regarding Nepal's
potential to tap the out-sourcing markets like Medical
Transcription, Call Centers etc being only realized to limited
extent, the IT sector in Nepal has failed to take off.

http://www.nepalnews.com.np/contents/englishweekly/spotlight/2004/j
an/jan30/national5.htm
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. S. Would you like to share this  newsletter with your friends
or post  it on your site?  Please do! But also be sure to read
below:

All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2004
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd.  All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site
as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.

Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
----------------------------------------------------------------
Please DO NOT reply to this mail id to unsubscribe.

MT India Newsletter

To subscribe, send an email to:
MTIndia-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

24  Jan 2004
********************************************************

An MT's Voice!

********************************************************
Dear Friends,

We quote from a letter:

"It is nice being joined to a group who are serious about what they
are doing. I am very happy to have become a member of such a group.

I am an MT with about a year-and-a-half experience.  I have worked
in two different companies and am quite happy about my performance.

What actually bothers me is the way the company management is
taking the MTs for granted.  In fact, they consider us MTs like
some common laborer, and the way I was treated in my first company
confirms that.

I will like to impress on all MT companies and their managements to
bring a new trend, where every individual is treated first as a
human being and then as an employee.  Let the companies use the MTs
and their potential. Similarly, let them also treat them with
respect for the job which they do.

Most of those in management whom I came accross were not aware of
the pressure and problems an MT has to go through. Such an
ignorance spoils their approach towards their employees and surely
reduces their productivity and puts them to lot of mental pressure.

My request to all MT companies and their managers is this:  Each MT
is very vital for that particular company's growth.  Treat them for
what they deserve.

Also one common question I come accross from my colleagues is:
"How long will this industry last?"

All the best...

JP

We invite our members to discuss these issues further at the forum
http://www.mtindia.org/Forum/default.cfm

Ciao!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

"Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality!"

***********************************************************
ADVERTISEMENT:
----------------------

MTs wanted at Bangalore:

VeriScribe, a wholly owned unit of Medescribe Inc., Michigan, is
looking for MTs and Direct Upload MTs with 2+ yrs exp to work in
1st & 2nd shift. Location: Bangalore

VeriScribe Private Limited,
No 343, 2nd Floor,1st 'B' Main, 7th Block
Koramangala, Bangalore-95.
Ph: 30617711/51104117/9880080232/9844277627.
E-mail: jobs@....

***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
------------------------

1) Is the `feel-good' factor for real?

Is the Indian economy really as strong as Finance Minister Jaswant
Singh seems to believe? It seems so. The first factor is that of
agricultural production. Good monsoons have led to demand form the
rural areas. Farmers are buying TVs, motorcycles and gold.

The second fact is that of outsourcing. Companies in rich countries
are being forced to transfer as many operations as possible to
India. Previously, American companies established their research
facilities only in America because competent scientists were
available only in that country. Now equally competent scientists
are available in India at a fraction of the price. It is cheaper to
establish call centres, undertake medical transcription and
translation and other operations in India.

http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13366525

2) Corporate America's Youngest CEO

Shubhayan Udayan Mukherjee - young, brilliant and very very
successful. A quick snapshot of his life proves my point. Mukherjee
started his own company at 18; graduated from Bachelors of Science
in International Business Administration with a GPA of 3.96 at 19,
and became CEO and Chairman of a multinational company with
branches in 10 countries and investments in almost every sector of
the industry before he was even allowed to drink legally in the
United States.

A man of contradictions and impossibly high energy, Mukherjee has
enchanted society like a enigmatic Pied Piper, by growing his
corporate empire so rapidly and opening fully functional offices in
10 different countries by 21. People in the corporate world either
love him or hate him. Few remain neutral. Mukherjee defies
convention and makes himself impossible to ignore.

Born in Kolkata (then Calcutta), West Bengal in 1981, Mukherjee
moved to Nairobi, Kenya when his father got transferred there.
Since then, Mukherjee has lived in Cambridge, London, New York and
San Diego. Not content with running two companies, Mukherjee also
has a growing medical transcription company ...

http://lifestyle.press-world.com/v/59423.html

3) Making a Case Against HIPAA

Under the Clinton administration, HIPAA required patients' written
permission for personal health information disclosures to
physicians, hospitals, pharmacies and insurance plans. This changed
in August 2002.

"We took great care to make sure we weren't creating greater
hardships or more health care bureaucracy for patients as they seek
to get prompt and effective care," Secretary Tommy Thompson of the
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said in the August
2002 press release, clarifying the Bush administration's final
modifications to HIPAA. "The prior regulation, while
well-intentioned, would have forced sick or injured patients to run
all around town getting signatures before they could get care or
medicine. This regulation gives patients the power to protect their
privacy and still get efficient health care."

But Janlori Goldman, director of the Health Privacy Project at
Georgetown University, had another bend on the modifications,
namely that they ease marketing safeguards. The marketing exemption
"now includes any paid communication from a provider recommending a
health-related product or service, and no longer requires the two
consumer safeguards of notice and opt-out," she wrote in an Aug.
23, 2002 summary of the modification. "HHS is now legalizing and
legitimizing a controversial practice that has been widely decried
by consumers and health care providers as reprehensible."

http://www.advanceforhim.com/common/Editorial/Editorial.aspx?CC=281

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. S. Would you like to share this  newsletter with your friends
or post  it on your site?  Please do! But also be sure to read
below:

All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2004
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd.  All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site
as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.

Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
----------------------------------------------------------------
Please DO NOT reply to this mail id to unsubscribe.

MT India Newsletter

To subscribe, send an email to:
MTIndia-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

17  Jan 2004
********************************************************

Us & Them

********************************************************
Dear Friends,

I am publishing excerpts from an article written by an Indian MT,
who prefers to call himself the 'MT Guru!' Enjoy...
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The second, and I feel equally critical, issue to be tackled is
entirely in the hands of the MTs.  MTs (including Editors & QAs)
must deliver quality that cannot be challenged.  Each MT in the
country must realize that this has become a matter of national
prestige.  No doubt, we are one of the best in software, but we
have yet some way to go in establishing our credentials as
unquestionable in the field of medical transcription.  The onus of
doing this lies on every MT in India.  Maybe that's putting it a
bit too melodramatically, what?!  But the fact remains that core
competency is the area transcriptionists must focus upon.  If you
are a professional, ask yourself this: Does 'professional' signify
only a means of living or does it also signify a certain expertise
in your chosen field?  Are you just 'in the MT profession' or are
you also a professional as in 'a pro'?

For quality to improve on a large scale it is essential that skills
be shared.  We need to work as a team instead of individual
components with assorted capabilities.  For this to happen, skills
must be shared and propagated.  For example, out of every 100
experienced MTs, at least 70 are likely to be dependent on the
mouse for the most elementary of functions, thus cutting down speed
and increasing the turn-round-time as a whole.  To put it simply,
if you want to be a 'cat' at MT, you will have to first kill the
'mouse' (pun intended)!  There are many more such examples where
your technique in performing basic functions like opening a file or
a program might actually be taking much of your time and thus
distracting you from the actual job.  In fact, your limited
awareness of the availability of techniques that could boost your
speed may be the reason for your lack of line count and quality.
(When one hears of the staggering line counts the American MTs
give, one simply feels like finding a quiet corner, lying down, and
passing out forever).  Now, everyone cannot be a Speed King when it
comes to pure typing speed.  But that does not mean one can't hope
to compete on an equal basis.  Remember, speed on the computer
keyboard is not the same as speed on an ordinary typewriter.  You
don't have to be a Superman at typing to improve your line count.
After all, it isn't as if the Americans are physiologically more
advanced than the Indians.  The difference is just in the way we do
things.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
To read the entire article, go to:
www.mtindia.org/mtguru

Ciao!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

"Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality!"

***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
------------------------

1) Transcription industry wants tough law

A newly-formed association of the Transcription industry, the
Coimbatore Transcription Industry Alliance (CTIA), has urged the
Center to bring in tough legislation for handling cyber crime,
better policing and strict legal deterrents.

The main objective of forming CTIA was to provide security and high
standards for the transcription sector, particularly in the medical
field, in the wake of the threat by a Pakistan transcriptionist to
publish Patient Health Information (PHI) on the Internet, CTIA
Vice-President, C P Vasudevan told reporters.

Vasudevan pointed out that it was imperative for India to assure
and prove to the American health care facilities that their
documents were safe here, in compliance with the Health Information
Portability an Accountability Act (HIPAA) norms.

Stating that India had a share of only two per cent of the 20
billion dollar transcription industry in U.S.A, he said CTIA would
form a Federation of Transcription Industry, to promote superior
performance standards and to provide a forum to exchange
information and technology.

It also demanded a regulation or ban on home-based transcription
and facilitate the industry to mature into an organized sector.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/040109/54/2atkd.html

2) The BPO backlash?

The benefits of outsourcing are far too compelling for the West to
cut back on it.

Even as IT-enabled services (ITES) exports registered a sharp
growth in 2003, some incidents raise questions about the long-term
prospects. Some individual states in the US have also passed laws
banning the outsourcing of public services to foreign providers,
under pressure from the business and employee lobbies.

In a way, such protests and actions are a tribute to the success of
Indian ITES. On the other hand, does it portend ill for the
long-term prospects of the industry?

First, with increasing globalisation of manufacturing, far more
blue-collared jobs in the industrial world have gone to countries
like China. However, this did not attract the kind of opposition
that the much smaller transfer of white-collar jobs is attracting.

Second, the irony is that many developing countries, including
India, were opposed to the inclusion of services as part of the
World Trade Organisation (WTO) treaty. The fear was that domestic
companies in industries like banking and insurance would not be
able to compete with their far stronger rivals from industrial
countries.

There is a third angle. The trend is from less sophisticated,
elementary work to increasingly sophisticated business processes -
from code-writing and system maintenance to co-development and
design of products, and to proprietary products; from medical
transcription to reading of X-rays to sophisticated surgery and
hospitalisation services; from call centres to processing of
personal loan applications and insurance claims, to sophisticated
financial analysis; the list is long. Indian hospitalisation and
healthcare services exports alone are expected to amount to $ 5
billion by 2008.

http://in.biz.yahoo.com/040111/26/2auhp.html

3) Chrysalis leads $5.5 million investment in training company

Louisville venture-capital firm Chrysalis Ventures LLC is
participating in a $5.5 million "B" round of funding for a Texas
company that provides technical training related to the information
technology and medical fields.

TechSkills provides its training through 30 learning centers in 17
states. The health-related courses include training for medical
office operations, medical transcription and insurance coding and
billing.

http://www.bizjournals.com/louisville/stories/2004/01/12/story6.htm
l

4) Model Behavior

The magic behind the Model is simple: Send a portion of your legal
work to someone other than attorneys at law firms. In DuPont's
case, lawyers from a temporary agency handled relatively simple
tasks like initial witness interviews, exhibit collection and
document review.

For law firms, there's an obvious downside: They lose billable
hours and training opportunities for young lawyers on
less-complicated legal tasks like document review. And all is not
rosy for in-house counsel. They give up some control over work
assigned to outsourcing agencies, and if an agency is located
overseas, confidentiality, security and cultural issues may arise.

Take, for instance, the case of UCSF Medical Center's recent scare
over patient medical records. A woman in Pakistan hired to
transcribe patient records threatened to reveal patient information
if she was not paid money a sub-contractor owed her.

"This is something that's still very much in its formative stages,"
said Sanjay Prasad, chief patent counsel at Oracle Corp.

Daniel Cooperman, Oracle's general counsel, said he'd like to see
more of the company's legal work -- especially on patents -- done
by lawyers located closer to facilities in places like Bangalore,
India.

For several years, India has been a hot spot for companies looking
to find cheaper labor for tasks from fielding customer service
calls to designing software. So why not take it one step further,
asks Cooperman, and move some basic legal services there, too?
Getting an outsourcing agency to do work in a foreign market is one
of the chief ways the practice saves money, Cooperman said.

"I would rather grow in India," he said.

http://biz.yahoo.com/law/031201/9bf7ac37de6a2a1446904725a642e9fa_1.
html
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. S. Would you like to share this  newsletter with your friends
or post  it on your site?  Please do! But also be sure to read
below:

All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2004
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd.  All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site
as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.

Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
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10  Jan 2004
********************************************************

The future of MT

********************************************************
Dear Friends,

I am republishing an editorial, from May 1999! Let me know, if this
was relevant at that time, or today...

Firstly there are two fallacies existing amongst the MT community
(in which I'll include businessmen):

The first, is more relevant to India. Every investor I have met,
sooner or later comes down to the 'fact' that MT is a low end IT
job. Nothing could be farther from the truth! I do concede that MT
in India is an IT enabled service i.e. it would not have been
possible without the net. That is where the resemblance ends. Good
and secure connectivity is a must and technology can be harnessed
to improve productivity, but the core skills are centered around
mastering the language of medicine ( which might be, and
frequently is literally, Greek or Latin to the uninitiated) and
appreciating the physician's requirements. It is a knowledge based
profession, and the knowledge has nothing to do with IT. Period.

Secondly I do not see any vision amongst those who spread the hype
about MT being an Industry per se, especially so in the developed
world. With accuracy, accountability, efficiency, reliability, and
usability being the key issues, the future lies with MT being
seamlessly integrated into Health Information Management Systems.
In simpler words we are moving to formatted electronic medical
records, speech recognition as a valuable tool, and transcribing
in realtime on the service providers server. That's the ASP
concept, which one and all visionaries are racing towards.

That leads to the core issue: what is the MT's future? This I talk
about globally, and not restricted by geography. Firstly, as I
visualize it, the MT's job profile will be drastically changed in
the next ten years, so much so that they might be known by some
other name by 2010. Yesterday's typist is called a data entry
operator today!

But closer to the ground I do not a visualize a society ten years
from now where anybody will be ready to accept dictations which
are mumbled,munched, slurped, flushed..... etc down the ear, be it
in India or the US. Physicians as a class are the major hindrance
to the growth of Medical Informatics, and resist any sort of
change requiring reorientation; yet society is the strongest
driving factor and will have the last word.

To sum it up:

1) The MT will stay.

2) The job will be done differently, possibly by a different name.

If you ask me to be more specific - I cannot. I might be a self
proclaimed visionary, however I am neither an astrologer nor a
soothsayer.

So the message is: Do your work well, and have a great weekend!!!

Ciao!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

"It takes years to become an overnight success! Inch by inch, it's
a cinch."

***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
------------------------

1) Tech firms defend moving jobs overseas

Worried about possible government reaction to the movement of U.S.
technology jobs overseas, leading American computer companies are
defending recent shifts in employment to Asia and elsewhere as
necessary for future profits and warning policy makers against
restrictions.

"Countries that resort to protectionism end up hampering innovation
and crippling their industries, which leads to lower economic
growth and ultimately higher unemployment," said the
Washington-based Computer Systems Policy Project, whose member
companies include Intel Corp., IBM, Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard
Co.

The technology group argued in its new report that moving jobs to
countries such as China or India -- where labor costs are
cheaper -- helps companies more readily break into foreign markets
and hire skilled and creative employees in countries where students
perform far better than U.S. students in math and science.

"Americans who think that foreign workers are no match for U.S.
workers in knowledge, skills and creativity are mistaken," the
trade group's report said.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/biztech/01/07/technology.jobs.ap/index
.html

2) Manipal starts BPO firm with American JV

Indian healthcare and education major, Manipal Group has formed a
joint venture with Florida based Sonix Medical Resources to form a
U.S. based BPO company focussing on the healthcare sector.
Christened Omega Healthcare Management Services, it will have
offshore BPO center in Bangalore called Manipal Omega Healthcare
Management Services. Sonix is a provider of outpatient diagnostic
and treatment services,

"This BPO will provide services including medical billing, medical
coding, transcription and tele radiology to both healthcare
providers such as hospitals as well as healthcare service
providers. The administrative functions account for $11 billion of
the $ 1.5 trillion US healthcare industry," said Om Soni, Chairman
of Sonix Medical Resources.

"We have been operating a BPO provision for our 40 odd clients in
the US where we employ around 300. We are rapidly expanding,
looking to add 100 more within the year and maybe all of them will
be in India," said Douglas Cassel, Chairman of Healthcare
Management Partners.

http://www.ciol.com/content/news/2004/104010911.asp

3) Speech Recognition in the Electronic Health Record
(AHIMA Practice Brief)

Speech recognition is not, in and of itself, the final solution in
clinical documentation. Whether recognition takes place on a server
in order to increase the productivity of transcriptionists or is
used directly by the dictator with the goal of eliminating both the
delay and expense of transcription, it should be viewed as only one
component of clinical documentation. This practice brief undertakes
to increase HIM professionals' understanding of how speech
recognition works, the driving forces that are shaping the current
and future applications of this technology, the benefits and risks
associated with both "front-end" and server-based use, and to
provide a glossary of terms, as well as illustrate work flow, tasks
and skills, and best practices.

http://library.ahima.org/xpedio/groups/public/documents/ahima/pub_b
ok1_022192.html

4) Brits collect cash to prevent job loss to India

So, if you can't beat offshoring, raise your skills! That seems to
be the motto of the call centre workers in the UK. Despite the
nagging complaints about the wrong accent and mismatched culture,
outsourcing to Indian call centres is here to stay. So, if the
Western counterpart of the bright young Indian grad has to compete,
they had better improve their skills.

Under pressure, the government seems to have pressed the panic
button and is now going all out to improve the skills of the UK
call centre worker.

Merseyside, a call centre hub, where over 13,000 people are
working, is the place where this initiative has been launched.

The UK Government's Northwest Development Agency has invested in a
three-year initiative to raise the profile of the call centre
industry and retain jobs in the region.

Under pressure, the government seems to have pressed the panic
button and is now going all out to improve the skills of the UK
call centre worker. The UK Government's Northwest Development
Agency has invested in a three-year initiative to raise the profile
of the call centre industry and retain jobs in the region.

The call centre job is now actually the hot job, thanks to India.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/414040.cms
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. S. Would you like to share this  newsletter with your friends
or post  it on your site?  Please do! But also be sure to read
below:

All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2004
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd.  All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site
as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.

Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
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MT India Newsletter

To subscribe, send an email to:
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03 Jan 2004
********************************************************

The MT Leadership Quandary:  Management vs. Technology!

********************************************************
Dear Friends,

There is a basic dilemma facing all managers of Medical
Transcription.... must technical skills and knowledge be
sacrificed for the sake of  management obligations?  The most
likely answer is yes.... but certainly not to exclusivity.

No one can do it all ... it is unlikely that any MT manager will
truly be successful if he or she focuses solely on technology,
forsaking the skills and responsibilities of management.  But,
without a strong foundation in technology (hopefully derived from
substantial hands-on experience),  no MT manager will be truly
effective either.

Once you assume the mantle of MT leadership, you will probably
have to lose your edge when it comes to technical skills.
Whether you like it or not, you will be expected to trade in
those skills for management responsibilities.  This may very well
seem like a mistake after a long day of meetings, administrivia
and political intrigue, but that is a fact of the management
career.

But, this does not mean that you have to turn over the keys to
the technical store.  To the contrary, in order to be an
effective MT manager, you will need to reach the ultimate
compromise.... blending technical skills and experience with
management expertise, making both work to your advantage.  To do
this, consider these steps:

1.  Stay on top of the basics.  While you may never again have
the in depth knowledge of the individual who is transcribing or
analyzing quality on a daily basis, you can certainly stay
involved and informed in the latest technologies through reading
and research.

2.  Show interest and respect for hands-on technical work,
including maintaining an active presence during production,
quality control and training.

3.  Use your knowledge and experience to challenge staff with
relevant and probing questions with respect to their technical
decisions and activities.  Not only will this help to maintain
the appropriate level of quality, it may also earn you some
additional respect.  In addition, by making your technical staff
"talk it out", you will be forcing them to evaluate their own
decisions.  In all likelihood, this will bring alternatives and
potential problems to the surface.

4.  Accept your role as a manager, and concentrate on delegation
of authority and organizational needs and interests.  Use your
technical knowledge as a foundation for both of these objectives.

The MT management role is a continual challenge .... calling for
the right mix of technical skills and management expertise.  You
can never really sacrifice one for the other, and finding the
right balance between the two may be the biggest challenge of
them all.

We invite our members to discuss this issue at the forum:
http://mtindia.org/forum/default.cfm

Ciao!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

"It takes years to become an overnight success! Inch by inch, it's
a cinch."

***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
------------------------

1) This wave is for doctors to surf

You could say it's the back-office clinic. We're not talking
billing and coding work here. This is about high-end services in
the medical transcription field. The kind that involves trained
doctors.

Compared to basic back-office functions such as customer care,
accounting, legal and human resources, outsourcing of healthcare
services is low profile, although widely prevalent among healthcare
organisations. All the same, it could spell big business for
domestic business process outsourcing (BPO) firms. The global
healthcare market is said to be in excess of a trillion dollars,
with medical transcription, coding and billing presenting an
opportunity in excess of $25bn. (Is concentrating on high-end
services the best way to survive the BPO competition?)

According to some estimates, providing ITES/BPO services in
healthcare would bring in revenues of Rs 23,000 crore to India by
'08. But there are a few caveats. "Indian firms are trying to
provide a complete suite of services although the capacity
enhancement issues are immense. Work is available in plenty but
there is a shortage of new entrants to the industry owing to the
lack of knowledge of the enormous potential of this industry," says
Suresh Nair, MD of Bangalore-based healthcare services provider Max
HealthScribe.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/396934.cms

2) Prohibited abbreviations from JCAHO

A "minimum list" of dangerous abbreviations, acronyms and symbols
has been approved by JCAHO. Beginning January 1, 2004, the
following items must be included on each accredited organization's
"Do not use" list:

Also, the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) has
published a list of dangerous abbreviations relating to medication
use that it recommends should be explicitly prohibited.

http://www.jcaho.org/accredited+organizations/patient+safety/04+nps
g/04_faqs.htm

3) MT firms form body to avoid scams

The medical transcription firms in Vadodra are taking precautions
by forming an association to avoid a scam similar on the lines of
data-entry which rocked the city about a year back. Established
medical transcription firms feel there is need for an association
as they say many new companies have cropped up in recent times and
their credentials cannot be confirmed.

"Many new companies are coming up without any past experience in
medical transcription. Suspicion arises on the method of their
operations. Salaries paid to their employees are unsustainable even
by the US standards. Nearly seven such companies have come up
recently," said KK Patel of Fortune Infotech, one of the larger BPO
firms in the city. We don't want the industry to loose out on the
lines similar to the data entry scam, he added.

"Drawing guidelines, providing a training centre and being in more
credibility in the industry will be our broad goals," says Ashish
Mehta of Zodiac Infotech.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/328673.cms

4) Nothing's sacred ... nor secret?

It turns out that for years, the hospital had farmed out medical
transcription work locally. But the local subcontractor had a lot
of work, so they subbed it out to more than 15 others, who in turn,
subbed again. Ultimately that work went offshore and that meant
trouble.

One woman claimed she hadn't been paid and put pressure where it
would get attention. It did. She got her money, but the problem
remains. Or at least the medical center hasn't announced that it
changed its ways.

Offshore work isn't unusual. Tech help for computers routinely is
done in India or Pakistan, or other countries. The key is an
educated, skilled, English-speaking and lower-wage work force.

It appears we're all guinea pigs in a worldwide privacy invasion.
While liberals and malcontent conservatives wail about the
so-called privacy invasions of the Patriot Act, we've already been
sold out by financial and medical institutions (and who knows what
others) we've trusted.

It will only get worse.  Don't say you weren't warned.

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=36353

5) Indian exporters raring to go

Shrugging off the failure to capitalise on the anti-subsidy mood at
the Doha ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO)
to extract concessions from the US and the European Union,
exporters from India are stepping into 2004 with a new-found
confidence stemming from economic resurgence, stock market buoyancy
and bulging foreign exchange reserves.

With increasing business handled by call centres and medical
transcription facilities at home coupled with growing demand for
Indian teachers and nurses, the India brand is all set to soar in
the global service sector market. If this buzz is tapped properly
to promote the 'Made in India' brand too, then it will be just a
question of time before India wipes off its trade deficit (imports
minus exports) which now stands at around $6 billion. This will
insure India from oil shocks, help the elephant to give the dragon,
tigers a run for their money and build strong infrastructure on the
strength of its $100 billion forex reserves.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/398871.cms

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. S. Would you like to share this  newsletter with your friends
or post  it on your site?  Please do! But also be sure to read
below:

All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2004
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd.  All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site
as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.

Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
----------------------------------------------------------------
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27 Dec 2003
********************************************************

The true "e-MpTy" in MT

********************************************************
Dear Friends,

Reprinting from Aug 2000 issue...
-------------------------------------------------------
Now I've heard everything! The San Francisco Chronicle reported
some weeks ago that a Hindu priest in Silicon Valley called
Umashankar Dixit is in great demand to perform Lakshmi poojas when
MT startups are launched by Indians, as an increasing number are.
Mr. Dixit says modestly that he is considered a 'lucky hand'
because his God is Ganesha, the remover of obstacles. He -- Mr.
Dixit that is, not Ganesha -- has been compensated in cash and
stock options by several startups and says he has already done very
well from the IPOs. Rediff's US edition and USA Today have since
come up with their own breathless takes on Mr. Dixit, reporting
among other things that he spends an hour every morning, presumably
just after sandhyavandanam, on the Internet monitoring the
financial markets.

It's not clear from the articles whether Mr. Dixit is an Iyer, in
which case he would normally wear three bands of vibhooti on his
forehead -- ideal, one would think, for launching companies which
specialise in TASPs. On the other hand, he may be an Iyengar who
wears a U-shaped naamam on his forehead, more suitable for
launching MT service companies (that's how the graph goes :). Or
else, he may have decided to assist as wide a spectrum of startups
as possible and may favour a simple kumkum pottu -- in effect,
despite all the gadzillions HealthScribe spends on advertising, it
may actually be Mr. Dixit who is the "e-MpTy" in MT.

It is likely, although both the Chronicle and Rediff are
unaccountably reticent on this point, that Mr. Dixit's poojas are
integral to the business plans of his clients and the willingness
of canny VCs to part with vast amounts of negotiable tender. I have
it on good authority that the average e-MpTy startup in the Valley
usually has its business plan scribbled on a napkin and requires
you to sign a non-disclosure before it will show the napkin to you.
Mr. Dixit's clients have probably jotted down a business plan that
typically goes something like this:

1. Come up with brilliant idea for TASP category killer
but don't tell anybody
2. Get copy of founders' horoscopes for name selection
3. Consult Dixit on launch date and muhurtam
4. Finalise funding of 6 million
5. Locate suitable garage
6. Order pizza
7. Don't use this napkin to blow your nose

'So who's Dixit?' asks the VC. 'Oh, he specialises in
ultra-long-distance wireless communications' says the entrepreneur.
'Wow,' says the VC as he fumbles for his chequebook, 'so that's
where you're going, huh?' 'That's where the whole world will
eventually have to go' says the entrepreneur, 'but we're giving you
an opportunity to get in on the ground floor!' And so it goes.

The Chronicle describes a typical Lakshmi pooja performed by Mr.
Dixit in lyrical detail. The CEO of the company has set up a small,
colourful shrine in a tiny conference room for the ceremony. 'There
is a basket with 108 U.S. coins, symbolizing the 108 different
names and forms of Hindu gods; a platter with coconuts, limes and
other offerings; and small silver bowls of turmeric, the
yellow-orange seasoning signifying wealth, and kumkum, the red
powder that Indians use to dot their foreheads. The ceremony, which
involves a lot of chanting and tossing of flower petals, lasts
about 45 minutes.' As an honorarium, Mr. Dixit receives 51 dollars
and 5,000 stock options. One assumes that for good measure, he also
tosses some akshathai on the heads of the VCs, not to mention the
Chronicle's correspondent. And so it goes.

The startup buys two Porsches and sets up shop in a garage to begin
work on its brilliant idea. Very soon, it is first round funding
'swaaha' as Mr. Dixit might say, and more money is needed although
no revenue is in sight. That's when the entrepreneurs hide the
Porsches and go out and hire a couple of CMTs. If all the column
inches of pure baloney that have been written about CMTs in the
past one year were placed end to end, they would reach the moon.
'Can I see the scars on your fingertips you got from the exam?'
whispers the VC reverently. 'Aw, gee' says the bashful CMT, 'you
should see the one I got when they did my frontal lobotomy!'
Immediately, even more money rolls in and our intrepid
entrepreneurs organise a homam that is, naturally, performed by Mr.
Dixit. 'We're increasing our burn rate' the founders reassure the
investors. And so it goes.

Soon, everyone wants to meet Mr. Dixit who duly arrives in his
modest Honda Accord. In the Valley, nobody thinks his silk veshti
and angavastram are particularly odd. 'Willya look at those cool
threads!' the investors remark, eyeing his poonal. 'So how's it
going?' they want to know. 'It's all His leela' says the devout Mr.
Dixit, looking skywards. 'We're a pure e-MpTy play' translate the
entrepreneurs. By this time, breathless articles in publications
like the Chronicle have caused normally cautious people to buy
sleeping bags and camp out on the grass outside the company to get
a piece of the action. The entrepreneurs use part of the windfall
to buy homes in Sausalito. The grihapravesam is performed,
naturally, by Mr. Dixit. And so it goes.

The Chronicle doesn't say specifically what Mr. Dixit thinks of the
whole dizzy e-MpTy world, although Rediff reports that he thinks
the economy and the markets will recover very soon, praise be to
Vigneshwara. The Chronicle is far too busy asking Dr. Mark
Juergensmeyer, professor of sociology who studies Indian religion
at the University of California at Santa Barbara what he thinks of
the idea of Mr. Dixit receiving stock options. Mr. Dixit will no
doubt be reassured to know that Prof. Juergensmeyer thinks that
stock options for priests aren't incompatible with Indian culture.
'Some Hindu priests' the good professor says, 'receive more than
others, just as they do in other religions.' Ayyaiyyo, for these
kinds of penetrating insights they gave Juggu a PhD?

What Ganesha thinks is another matter for speculation. The prudent
Mr. Dixit says he's already using a part of his high-tech portfolio
to construct a Durga Siddhivinayaka temple in Bangalore, so it may
well be okay with Him too. I guess day-trading beats removing
obstacles hands down, especially if He already knows which way
NASDAQ is going and how the MedQuist saga will end. Sarva Vighna
Upashaantaye...
--------------------------------------

Happy New Year, ladies and gents. I wish each MT Times reader a
happy, healthy, prosperous, and satisfying 2004.

Cheers!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

"It takes years to become an overnight success! Inch by inch, it's
a cinch."

***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
------------------------

1) British medical transcription work may go to India

More medical transcription work is expected to be outsourced to
India, with the British health authorities giving a £620 million
'electronic medical records' contract to British Telecom (BT).

Indian companies are already performing medical transcription work
for American hospitals and health care agencies. Now, the contract
to BT involving putting medical records of every patient in Britain
on a national database is expected to lead to several sub-contracts
to India. BT already has a major presence in India.

Health Secretary John Reid said the system will "completely
revolutionise" the way information about patients is accessed and
used.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_488540,0003.htm
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/347790.cms

2) Cornelius, N.C., Firm Outsources Medical-Record Keeping to India

Inside a single-story Cornelius office building, high-power
computers encode medical information for patients nationwide and
zap it to 3,000 transcriptionists in India.

In as little as two hours, neatly typed records of surgery,
illness, recovery and death zip back across the oceans to Arrendale
Associates and on to 40 U.S. hospitals and clinics, none in the
Carolinas.

Arrendale is the link to one of India's largest medical
transcription firms, CBay Systems, and illustrates the range of
U.S. work moving abroad. The partnership also represents two
commonly cited offshore drivers: cost-cutting and U.S. worker
shortages.

Experts estimate that 1 to 2 percent of U.S. MT work goes overseas
today. CBay already has a franchise-like network of 34 Indian
sites, employing about 3,000 MTs at an average of $3,000 to $5,000
a year, Del Arrendale said.

And within the past 18 months, the company has seen growing
acceptance for work done abroad.

"The stigma is there," said Kozie Phibbs, a former hospital medical
records director now selling for Arrendale, "but a lot of people
are becoming more comfortable with it."

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/7498649.htm

3) 'Outsourcing can't be blamed for job losses in US'

As US-based companies paid workers in India , China and the
Philippines almost $10 billion last year for services that can be
performed more cheaply by them than Americans, the job crisis in US
should be blamed on changing technology and not on outsourcing,
according to an economist here.

Most job losses over the last three years have not been due to
American jobs "moving" elsewhere, Robert B Reich, former Labour
Secretary, who is now professor of social and economic policy at
Brandeis, said in an article in The Wall Street Journal .

"Want to blame something? Blame new knowledge," said Reich, who
pointed out that job losses go well beyond the factory floor.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/385104.cms

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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or post  it on your site?  Please do! But also be sure to read
below:

All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2003
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd.  All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site
as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.

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The MTIndia Team
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20 Dec 2003
********************************************************

An ally?

********************************************************
Dear Friends,

Continuing the interview with Ms. Pfahning. Please note the
interview is over 4 years old and some information
may be outdated.
-------------------------------------------------------

Q: India does have its drawbacks. Could you quote from your
experience of what ought to be improved in this country?

As I mentioned previously, I feel that the level of English as
regards to American English vs British English should be utilized
more.  Not that I think the American English is better, it is more
universal and accepted in all countries around the world.  It is a
very complicated language and difficult to understand.

I see a weak area in using common sense in solving a problem or
situation. The ability to use ones imagination is not encouraged
here as well along with a broader knowledge of general subjects.
I often ask students to tell me about themselves so I can get to
know them better and they are stumped as to what to write.  They
cannot write a short story about a subject when asked to do so as
well.  Reading is also an essential part of life, but I do not see
a lot of that here nor do I hear anybody discussing what books they
have read, etc. In a bookstore one day I asked the young sales girl
working If she had read a certain book and her reply was, "I am
not allowed to read books."  I think this is very sad, because we
can learn so much from them and I am a strong advocate of reading.
It also helps build English skill levels in sentence structure,
etc.

India is very strong as far as nurturing education of all kinds.
This is admirable as I see many of the young people going on to
college and getting some type of degree.  We do not see this as
strongly in the US since mostly only the affluent can afford
colleges.

Q: What do you visualize as the future of MT in India - as a career
prospect?

There is much controversy in this regard as well.  There are many
varying opinions on this subject for those who have ventured into
this field. Myself, I feel that MT will be here for a long time.
I feel the strong companies will prevail and flourish.  I also
foresee that these same tanscriptionists will one day be working
for Indian physicians with the insurance industry coming into
being.

Q: There has been a lot of resentment amongst MTs in USA about jobs
going abroad. Seeing the magnitude of work available and
considering scalability of this industry in India, do you consider
that there is a threat to MTs in US.  Can US and Indian MTs
symbiotically coexist?

Right now there is a lot of controversy over this topic.  There
are a lot of heated words flying in both directions.  There is no
doubt that there is a huge volume of work in the US and there are
approximately 350,000 MTs in the US that are not able to meet the
demand of the hospitals.  With the insurance industry demanding
more and more from medical reports, more details are being
dictated, making reports longer thus taking more time to
transcribe.  Terminology is also changing from the few basic terms
previously used by physicians.  That is why training of MTs with
remedial training when new information comes out is essential.
Continuing education and updating oneself in the profession on an
ongoing basis is also essential to become and remain a good MT.  I
hope one day that the US can look at Indian MTs not as an enemy
but as an ally in the same profession.

...concluded...........

A Merry Christmas to all!!

Cheers!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

"It takes years to become an overnight success! Inch by inch, it's
a cinch."

***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
------------------------

1) Doctors also ship work overseas

In health care, transcription continues to be done mostly in the
United States, but a growing percentage is being done in India.
Three key factors are the shortage of qualified U.S. transcribers,
the availability of lower-cost English-speaking transcribers
elsewhere and a quicker turnaround time, observers say.

The American medical transcription industry is a $15 billion to $20
billion market, said Amy Buckmaster, president of the American
Assn. for Medical Transcription, Modesto, Calif. About 4% of that
goes to India, she estimates. Others think the figure is as high as
10%.

"I saw at least a dozen transcription companies exhibiting," at the
Medical Group Management Assn.'s annual meeting last month in
Philadelphia, said Stuart Patty, administrator of Peoria (Ill.)
Surgical Group. "Many are using offshore labor. I'd say four or
five are run by Indians, and the rest probably have that in the
background though it's not obvious, and a couple were owned by
Americans." Patty's 12-doctor practice has outsourced most of its
transcription needs to India.

Richard C. Anderson, MD, a thoracic surgeon with the Illinois
group, sympathizes with workers who have lost their jobs. But
doctors have no choice but to use offshore services if they can get
the same quality service for less than it would cost in America, he
said.

http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2003/11/10/bisb1110.htm

2) Local medical transcription firms seek help from gov't

LOCAL companies involved in offshore medical transcription work
have urged both government and industry to help fight a pending US
legislation banning the outsourcing of jobs to other countries like
the Philippines.

In a petition, the Medical Transcription Industry Association of
the Philippines Inc. (MTIAPI), urged government and the
Filipino-American business groups to lobby against the measure.

The petition was presented during the launching of the
organization, which was established by nine Philippine-based
medical transcription service providers.

http://www.inq7.net/inf/2003/dec/13/inf_1-1.htm

3) Privacy Without Borders

Companies that outsource the processing of sensitive financial or
medical data know they need to overcome customer concerns about
protection against inadvertent disclosures. In the coming year,
they could face additional legal obstacles as well.

In the first week of January, California state Sen. Liz Figueroa
plans to introduce legislation to prohibit confidential medical
information and tax returns from being sent abroad, says Elizabeth
Fenton, the senator's chief of staff. The proposal stems from an
incident in October when a woman doing medical transcriptions in
Pakistan threatened to post on the Web data related to patients of
the University of California's San Francisco Medical Center. She
claimed a subcontractor hadn't paid her for her work.

Molly Malone, executive director of the Medical Transcription
Industry Alliance, a professional association for the industry,
says about 45% of hospitals it has surveyed subcontract these jobs.
Only 4% say they send work overseas themselves, though those who
don't send the work overseas could be working with U.S. outsourcers
that subcontract the work abroad.

Kaiser Permanente, a large health-care provider with a major
California presence, contracts with Covansys, HCL Technologies,
Infosys, and Tata Consultancy Services for offshore IT services.
The outsourcers have at least a decade of experience with
international companies, including U.S. health-care organizations,
a Kaiser spokesman says. They do employee background and criminal
checks and daily verifications of employee badges and personal
belongings.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cmp/20031209/tc_cmp/
16506477

4) Poor infrastructure plagues ITES sector

Poor infrastructure could result in a loss of $21 billion of
investment to other competing countries in Asia and this is a major
threat to the realisation of India's projected IT vision for 2008,
according to a CII paper on IT.

India needs to enable the creation of adequate infrastructure in
the form of national backbone, integrate telecom policies to roll
out data transmission and rationalise tariff structure for
bandwidth, the CII paper on 'IT-empowering growth' stated.
While the costs of serving the customers is indeed lower, customer
satisfaction levels have tended to be rather low in call centres
and medical transcription services, the paper said.

Medical transcription, among the earliest ITES opportunities in
India, proliferate around US insurance regulations.
"A 24-hour turnaround time and high quality of transcription are
critical to the service and require deployment of sufficiently
trained staff with good transcription skills and familiarity with
medical technical terminology", the CII paper said.
Certification and training are two important requirements to build
a competitive transcription business in India.
A closer analysis reveals that India needs to gear up on several
fronts considering that ITES involves real-time,
manned-transactions with immediate business consequences, it said.

The global ITES market is currently estimated at $10 billion and
McKinsey projects the same to grow to $140 billion by 2008. India
has a business potential of $21-$24 billion in ITES segment by
2008, as per Nasscom-McKinsey projections.

http://sify.com/finance/fullstory.php?id=13335295

5) Godrej Group Ups Stake in CBay

The Godrej group has hiked its stake in Compas Connections of the
UK and the US-based CBay Systems Ltd - firms involved with Business
Process Outsourcing (BPO) - to 20 per cent and 10 per cent,
respectively. About two years ago, the group had picked up a stake
of around five per cent in each of these firms.

Adi Godrej, chairman, Godrej group, told FE that the group would
like to opt for a further hike in stake in the two firms in the
future. "BPO is an area in which we will continue to invest, and
Godrej Industries will be the vehicle for pursuing this interest,"
Mr Godrej added.

CBay, which is the leader in supplying Indian medical transcription
to the US healthcare industry, is the largest provider of
transcription and information services to the Indo-US healthcare
services arena. The Godrej group's role is seen as that of a
venture capitalist, even as it is playing an active role in these
ventures.

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=47880

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. S. Would you like to share this  newsletter with your friends
or post  it on your site?  Please do! But also be sure to read
below:

All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2003
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd.  All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site
as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.

Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
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06 Dec 2003
********************************************************

Offshore MTSOs' meet ...

********************************************************
Dear Friends,

As you all know, there has been a recent spate of negative
publicity in the newspapers about outsourced medical transcription
work sent overseas.  It has resulted in a California Senator
announcing she will introduce a bill in the California legislature
this upcoming January, restricting California residents' medical
data from being sent overseas.  Concerned Indian MT companies are
meeting to discuss means to proactively address this. Affected
MTSOs based in the US will be attending and spearheading the
agenda, as well as meeting up with government officials who can
help.

The main points for discussion at these meetings are:

1) Potential threat of harmful legislative action
2) What could be done to ensure this bill is not introduced
3) Forming local & national associations

Below is the meeting schedule and contacts of the coordinators at
each location. Feel free to mail them directly for the venue and
time.

As usual, feel free to mail me for any clarification.
-------------------------------------------------------
1) Mumbai:

Mon - Dec 8th - Amlan Singha as@...
Tues - Dec 9th - Manoj Kshirsagar manoj@...

2) Nagpur:

Tues - Dec 9th - Arun Upadhayaya arun@...
Rattan Pathak Rattan@...

3) Delhi

Wed - Dec 10th - Dr. S.K. Chatterjee
skchatterjee@...
Thurs - Dec 11th - Deepak dk_iiml@...
Fri - Dec 12th

4) Hyderabad

Sun - Dec 14th - Subhorup Dasgupta subho65@...
Mon - Dec 15th

5)  Bangalore

Dec 16th Tues - V. Narayanasamy vns@...
Dec 17th

6) Chennai

Dec 18th - Thurs - Venkat Laxmanan venkat@...
S. Meganathan smeganathan@...

7) Trivandrum

Fri - Dec 19th - R.P. Lalaji lalaji@...
----------------------------------------------------------

As a parting note, I congratulate and support all those who have
elected to act decisively rather than procrastinate in this
situation, and we pledge all further support, within the
constraints of an online organization.

Cheers!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

"It takes years to become an overnight success! Inch by inch, it's
a cinch."

**************************************************************
ADVERTISEMENT
-------------------------------------
BetaSoft immediately requires at Mumbai:
-------------------------------------

* Medical Transcriptionists (MTs) (500 lines/shift) and Quality
Analysts (QAs) (1500 lines/shift).

* Remuneration will be the best in the industry.

* Interested candidates can contact us at 91-22-28524291/99 for an
appointment or send in their resumes to info.mt@....

***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
------------------------

1) Known Around the World: Private Records May Be at Risk

"They started off sending American jobs overseas," said U.S. Rep.
Edward Markey (D-Malden), co-chair of the congressional Privacy
Task Force. "Now Americans get to lose their jobs and their privacy
at the same time." The hot-button issue has risen to the level of
presidential politics, with U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.)
proposing a "Call Center Consumer's Right to Know Act," designed to
protect the jobs and privacy of Americans.

Defenders of outsourcing say a combination of U.S. laws and strict
security measures by corporations will protect Americans' privacy.
But critics say privacy laws in the United States -- unlike those
in the European Union -- have too many legal loopholes that permit
the outsourcing of both jobs and data with little built-in
protections.

Chris Hoofnagle, a lawyer with the Electronic Privacy Information
Center in Washington says "Most American privacy laws don't deal
with the exporting of data- processing jobs and information." The
privacy of patients' health records is supposed to be covered by
the U.S. Health Information Portability and Accountability Act,
which prevents health-care companies from selling information to,
for instance, telemarketing firms. A similar law applies to
financial information.

But Hoofnagle and others say companies can legally transfer that
information -- as opposed to selling it to a third-party -- to
overseas firms if those companies are providing direct vendor
services for U.S. corporations. That was the type of work the
Pakistani woman was doing.

Massachusetts General Hospital is one of many regional hospitals
that outsources work to India and elsewhere, from X-ray development
to transcription services. Deborah Adair, MGH's chief privacy
officer, said the California incident is an aberration -- and MGH
has much more strict contracts and guidelines to protect patients'
records. "It's all about good,
solid contracting," said Adair.

http://www.technewsworld.com/perl/story/32284.html

2) Lason to invest $ 100 mn in Indian operations

Lason India, part of the global BPO giant Lason, plans to invest up
to $ 100 million in its Indian operations in the next few years.
Lason India, which is now based in Chennai, plans to expand to
smaller towns by setting up 400-seater call centres in Pondicherry
and Kanchipuram.

The company also plans to add medical transcription, billing and
call centre facilities to its range of services, which includes
processing of insurance claims.

http://in.biz.yahoo.com/031127/103/29twa.html

3) Infotech Network ties up with Quovadx

Quovadx, a US firm into e-governance projects, has entered into a
tie-up with Infotech Network Group (ING), to provide networking
solutions in the healthcare, media and entertainment, government
and financial services sectors in India.

At present Quovadx outsources 80-90 per cent of its jobs from
India. The Colarado-headquartered company has a development
facility in California. "Healthcare in the US accounts for 16 per
cent of the country's gross domestic product. Around two per cent
of the turnover from healthcare is spend on the information
technology solutions sector," Nesvisky said. "With over 1,000
health insurance companies, 6,000 hospitals and over five lakh
doctors, the network to be connected is absolutely huge in the US.
Even if one per cent of those jobs is done in India, it would mean
a lot to us," he said.

As far as India is concerned, the major areas for outsourcing are
medical transcription, billing and coding and processing of claims,
Quovadx officials said.

http://in.biz.yahoo.com/031114/26/29gl6.html

4) Outsourcing anxiety..

Add to this the uncertainty over the future of medical
transcription business (where India accounts for almost half the
work outsourced from the US ), following reports that a Pakistani
woman transcriber threatened to post confidential medical reports
on the internet. And suddenly, the outlook for BPO business no
longer looks so rosy.

Nasscom, the apex association of software manufacturers, has been
trying its best to limit the damage. It need not worry unduly. For
one, the noise and fury over outsourcing is essentially a political
gimmick. Companies know there are very real gains to be had from
outsourcing. And as with manufacturing outsourcing in the '70s and
'80s, will strongly resist efforts by governments to cramp their
efforts at cost-cutting. Outsourcing, moreover, is a win-win
situation. According to a McKinsey study, every $1 invested in
outsourcing results in a return flow of $1.25 to the US economy.
Consequently, the present troubles facing the sector are likely to
be transient. But there is also no getting away from the fact that
the scorching pace of growth - close to 50% annually - cannot be
maintained indefinitely.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/328248.cms

5) Weekend ruminations...

While the headlines overseas focus on Indiana and the growing to-do
over job losses because of business process outsourcing, and while
domestic attention is focused on the big-ticket Indian companies
and how they are continuing to grow, the story that is even more
important in some ways is that global giants are locating their
research facilities in India, not just because of the cost
advantages but also because of the quality of work that is done
here.

In other words, this is the services equivalent of what China
achieved in manufacturing: the global giants moved in to create the
Chinese manufacturing story, it wasn't just local Chinese
enterprise; and now the global giants are moving into India to take
advantage of research capabilities.

In other words, this goes beyond call-centres and medical
transcription, it goes beyond payroll accounting, it goes beyond
the banking software products developed by I-flex and Infosys; it
is high-end work that no one would have thought of locating in
Bangalore five years ago.

http://in.biz.yahoo.com/031205/26/2a7aq.html
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. S. Would you like to share this  newsletter with your friends
or post  it on your site?  Please do! But also be sure to read
below:

All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2003
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd.  All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site
as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.

Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
----------------------------------------------------------------
Please DO NOT reply to this mail id to unsubscribe.

MT India Newsletter

To subscribe to this group, send an email to:
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29 Nov 2003
********************************************************

Everyone can't be an MT!

********************************************************
Dear Friends,

Continuing the interview with Ms. Pfahning...

Please note the interview is over 4 years old and some information
may be outdated.
-------------------------------------------------------
Q: Everyone cannot be an MT. What are the minimum prerequisites
that a candidate should possess before embarking on an MT course of
instruction?

You are right...this job is not for everyone!  A good candidate
must have good basic level of knowledge as well as possess
excellent English skills both in communication as well as written.
Many candidates do not speak English outside the classroom or home.
Speaking English on an ongoing basis helps to improve the skills
with which to be a good MT.  I have found that those who have
science backgrounds are more receptive to the language used in this
profession.  Those with convent schooling also excel in their
English language skills.

Computer and keyboarding is very helpful. However, there are
programs/software that allows the MT to learn and teach themselves
using this program.  I think a short course in typing skills would
be helpful before embarking in this career, however.

Q: How long should an ideal classroom course be for the average
Indian candidate? How many hours of theory and practice?

There are different schools of thought on this subject.  Some
courses have been taught in as short a time as 6 weeks (in the US),
with some being for 3 months, some 6 months, some 1 year and a
graduate course for 2 years (in the US).

The hours given to theory and practical depend on the length of the
course.  If we are talking only of the medical theory part, for 3
months it would be approximately 120 hours, 240 hours for 6 months,
480 hours for one year.  This is teaching 2 hours a day for 5 days
a week x 4 = 40 hours per month, etc.  However, most courses also
include English, Americanisms, and Pharmacology which shares the
teaching time, therefore, the hours may be altered somewhat since
each of the other subjects also teach for approximately one hour
each as well.  Theory then gets cut back to 1-1/2 hours rather than
2.

We all know that the end result depends on the amount of time
exposed to transcribing, therefore, as courses progress, the
transcription time should increase as well as the level of
difficulty progressing.

Q: What output can be expected from an MT fresh from such a course?

An MT should be able to transcribe a minimum of 200 lines at the
end of a 4 month course.  Benchmarks should be established for them
to increase these skills on a continuing basis over the next few
months while being monitored on the job.  This also depends on the
level of skill the MT begins with.  Those without skills at all
will take longer to come up than those with skills.  A person with
beginning skills will come up faster and should not be held back
because of the slower ones.  More work should be given to them if
their accuracy level is good.  Again, this depends on the level of
knowledge the individual has to begin with which will determine how
well they will do in the profession.

....to be continued...........

We invite our members to discuss these issues further at the forum
www.mtindia.org/Forum/default.cfm

Cheers!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

"It takes years to become an overnight success! Inch by inch, it's
a cinch."

**************************************************************
ADVERTISEMENT
-------------------------------------
BetaSoft immediately requires at Mumbai:
-------------------------------------

* Medical Transcriptionists (MTs) (500 lines/shift) and Quality
Analysts (QAs) (1500 lines/shift).

* Remuneration will be the best in the industry.

* Interested candidates can contact us at 91-22-28524291/99 for an
appointment or send in their resumes to info.mt@....

***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
------------------------

1) Medical Transcription industry presses for US-compliant laws

In an attempt to avert what could be the second outsourcing
backlash after the BPO backlash in the US, the medical
transcription (MT) industry in the country has urged the Indian
government to put in place a legislation validating US HIPAA laws
in India with similar punitive measures for offenders here.

The move follows a threat by California state senator Liz Figueroa
(D-Fremont) that she would introduce a legislation in January 2004
to ban doctors, HMOs, and hospitals from sending confidential
doctors' notes and other medical records abroad for processing
unless businesses and individuals adhere to the new patient privacy
law she is introducing for enactment.

In response to the representation that was also sent to AP Chief
Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, apart from the Centre and all
parliamentarians, the Andhra administration has asked its
consultants McKinsey to study the issue and suggest a further
course of action, Prasad added.

One of the problems that ail the MT industry in India is that it is
not as yet organised like other segments of the ITeS industry,
companies say. For instance, while Nasscom maintains that there are
just 75 transcription companies, in reality there would be upwards
of 200, they contend.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow
?msid=323700

2) Local officials concerned that hospital jobs may be going to
India

Fletcher Allen Health Care's use of medical transcriptionists in
India has sparked concern among elected officials and labor leaders
who want to end the practice before it grows.

The hospital contracts with a company that hires medical
transcriptionists in India who do the work of 11 full-time
transcriptionists. Locally, Fletcher Allen employs 97
transcriptionists, hospital spokesman Mike Noble said.

Burlington City Councilor Phil Fiermonte, P-Ward 3, took issue with
the use of overseas employees, saying they take jobs from
Vermonters and set a dangerous precedent that could funnel more
jobs away from the area.

As Fletcher Allen works to rebuild good will with the community in
the wake of scandal over the cost of its $362.5 million expansion,
administrators should redouble efforts to hire Vermonters,
Fiermonte said.

Noble said the hospital has hired overseas workers for the past few
years because local workers are hard to find. The Indian employees
are accurate and economical, he said.

"We have positions open for medical transcriptionists. We can't
hire enough of them," Noble said.

In addition to keeping jobs in the state, privacy is a concern with
medical transcription overseas, Henry said.

Rep. Steve Hingtgen, P-Burlington, said he plans to support state
legislation that addresses so-called "offshoring" of jobs in
Vermont. Other states have passed laws requiring disclosure of
overseas call centers and prohibiting use of state money to support
companies that ship jobs overseas, he said.

http://burlingtonvt.org/health-and-safety/Fletcher-Allen-Health-Car
e/Local_officials_concerned_that_hospital_jobs_may_be_going_to_Indi
a.html

3) Medical records held hostage?

Jill Callaghan-Dennis, JD, RHIA, principal for Health Risk
Advantage and an AHIMA Board member, stated that she felt AHIMA's
press release did a superb job in clearly explaining that this type
of thing can happen in any industry and in any segment of health
care; it's not unique to transcription. "All health care providers
have to protect themselves is a contract, so the contract has to be
written carefully and deliberately," she explained.

"I think AHIMA did a great job outlining the risks in their press
release. They really hit the mark," explained Brenda Hurley, CMT,
FAAMT, director of medical transcription development for MedWare
Inc. "There are medical transcriptionists all over the world who
would never breach HIPAA or think of doing something so unethical,
and it's unfortunate that our field receives this publicity only
when something goes wrong," explained Hurley.

So has this amount of press and sudden spotlight hurt or helped the
medical transcription field? "I don't think there's been a negative
reaction," stated Callaghan-Dennis. "I think the reaction has been
more of an 'Oh my goodness that could have happened to me!' It's
generated a lot of interest and people are taking a closer look at
their contracts-and that's a good reaction."

http://www.advanceforhim.com/common/Editorial/Editorial.aspx?CC=257
50

4) Turning on a Dime: Making Sense of Turnaround Times

Nowadays, it seems that everyone wants just about everything
faster. Whether it be an Internet connection or a muffler repair,
speed is of the essence. It's no different when it comes to medical
transcription.

"Turnaround times are getting shorter," observes Kathy Rockel, CMT,
FAAMT, transcription manager for Transcription Relief Services,
LLC.

At Heartland Information Services in Toledo, Ohio, technology is
critical to meeting client demands, says Dennis Paulik, vice
president of sales and marketing. The company's 1,400 to 1,500
employees, working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a
year out of three production sites in India, are linked to a
central system that constantly monitors workflow and file
priorities. As new files come in that require faster turnarounds
than those already in the queue, work can be re-sorted to ensure
the highest priority documents are prepared first-one of the major
benefits of a centrally networked process.

Some companies do implement practices designed to reduce or
eliminate any stress their transcriptionists may feel. Heartland,
for example, does not use a batch process to distribute its
work-transcriptionists simply go from one job to the next, unaware
of how many total files are waiting for them. Rather than being
overwhelmed or feeling rushed to complete a large number of waiting
files, employees can stay focused on the job at hand.

http://www.fortherecordmag.com/ftr_coverstory.htm

5) Acusis Remains Vigilant on Best Practices in the Outsourced
Medical Transcription Industry

Acusis(R) LLC, has taken recent action to reaffirm the firm's own
best practices regarding Protected Health Information security and
privacy. In response to recent industry news activity regarding the
threatened release of UCSF patient files by a subcontracted
offshore transcriptionist, the Company has also remained vigilant
in enforcing medical industry security requirements, including
those set forth by HIPAA, MTIA and other professional
organizations.

According to Acusis CEO, David Iwinski, Jr., "The outsourced
medical transcription industry was disappointed by recent
confidentiality breaches due to a subcontracted employee's own
agenda. Acusis highly encourages our customers or potential
customers - every hospital and clinic - to thoroughly research
every outsourced vendor under consideration, including us, for best
business practices. We do not condone subcontracting unique work
for sensitive medical information. At Acusis, there is zero
subcontracting and all work is done by Company associates."

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId
=news_view&newsId=20031126005245&newsLang=en

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
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as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.

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The MTIndia Team
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22 Nov 2003
********************************************************

Indian MTs AND English

********************************************************
Dear Friends,

As I see a resurgence of the MT profession in India, both with
MTSOs running free training curriculum and "fresh blood" opting in
for a career, I think it might be relevant to reprint an interview
with Arlette Pfahning, CMT. Ms Pfahning, got the initial training
program at HealthScribe going, then went on to  become  Director of
Training, Center for Medical Transcription Services, Bangalore.
Please note the interview is over 4 years old and some information
may be outdated.
-------------------------------------------------------
Q: What would you say is *the* shortfall in Indian MT Schools?

For those who are in the industry, we have recognized that the
major problem coming out of Indian MTs is the level of English.
Therefore, I think it a good idea to have a short course of
perhaps 3 to 4 weeks of just teaching English as required for
doing MT work since the English that is currently taught in Indian
schools is not broad enough to educate students in this
profession.  Once this is established, they have a better grasp on
how to proceed with a more professional looking report where
English is concerned.

English should also be an ongoing process with remedial classes
even after being on the job, say some refresher exercises once a
month to hone up their skills using medical sentences like what
they come across in dictation.

There are so many "training" institutes that have popped up around
India in the past year.  The most important question aspirants
should ask is, who is teaching the program, what experience does
the staff have in this profession and how long has the institute
been in business, how many students have been successfully placed
and maintained in positions.  Do they have a professionally
trained transcriptionist assisting in the training program?
What types of materials are being used? Is the material used
recognized by the US MT Industry and/or training institutes and/or
professional organizations?

A good training institute will begin its training principles based
on the AAMT Book of Style and use it as their guideline.  A good
medical Dictionary, be it Stedmans or Dorlands is essential.  With
all the software packages out on the market this is more
accessible to the MT and having online electronic programs
definitely enhances the skills of the MT.  A variety of
specialized medical specialty books are also available
for referencing.  Everyone should have at least one or two complete
sets of reference books available, because as of yet, there is no
one book that has "everything in it" that an MT needs, therefore,
we use a variety of reference books to assist us in our work.

.....to be continued...........

We invite our members to discuss these issues further at the forum
www.mtindia.org/Forum/default.cfm

Cheers!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

"It takes years to become an overnight success! Inch by inch, it's
a cinch."

**************************************************************
ADVERTISEMENT
-------------------------------------
Outsourcing:
-------------------------------------

*  Looking for companies who can proofread 5000 lines on day #1 and
grow to at least 10,000 lines per day.
*  All lines need to be executed thru proofer or MTs with prior
experience of direct submission to client only.
*  Need to compulsorily work 24 x 7
*  Very reliable and good bandwith essential.

To know more, see: www.focusmt.com

Apply in confidence to:
TN Raju
Focus Infosys
Phone   : 9845357689
Fax   : 5527230
Email   : cmt@...

   ***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
------------------------

1) IFC to up investments in India to $1 bn

International Finance Corporation is planning to increase its
investments in India to $1 billion in the next two years even as it
has pumped in additional funds in a US-based company with
operations in Chennai.

The international investment arm of World Bank sees a potential in
business process outsourcing business, especially in medical
transcription (MT), which is emerging as a profitable business, IFC
investment officer (IT investments group) Daniel Crisafulli told
reporters on Friday.

"The MT/BPO is slated to grow at around $10-25 billion worldwide
and there is a huge potential for it in India," he added.

IFC has invested around $3 million in Spryance for expansion of its
India operations. The company, which has a centre in Chennai, plans
to open two more centres at Pune and Hyderabad, with an additional
workforce of 1,200, Spryance CEO and president Raj Malhotra said.

Spryance is also planning to invest an additional $5 million,
taking its total investment in the country to $9 million (around Rs
40 crore), Malhotra said.

The BPO company has a financial backing of around $7 million from
IFC and other investors, and had invested around $4million in India
in its first phase of development, he said.

The company is planning to upgrade its Chennai hub and build a
second facility to function as a backup unit and accommodate
increase in demand, he said, adding, the opportunities in business
is at around $3-4 billion.

Spryance caters to the Health Information Management (HIM) market,
which includes MT and is growing at around 15 per cent annually.
India accounts for around $80 million of the total $200 billion in
HIM market, he said.

The company, which has around 500 home-based transcriptionists
would ramp up the workforce to 800 by the end of 2003 and to 2,000
in the next 18 months, he said.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow
?msid=283405

2) Careers from home

Working at home is an option again and a popular one at that, going
by the spate of home medical transcriptions now on the rise. For
the many who now stay at home and transcribe, this is one of the
best choices they have made. Besides the fact that they don't have
to brave the daily traffic, they are also able to look after their
homes and families while working at their convenience.

Says Prasanjit Ganguly, vice president, HR, Max Healthscribe, "We
decided to allow people to work from home but they have to meet
certain criteria. You should be in a position skillwise not to
require active help from a colleague. The competence level must be
very high too. We have about 60 people who work from home now in
places like Coimbatore, Salem and Mumbai."

Ananda Sanjeev, director, Acusis says, "I believe we pioneered the
home-based medical transcription in the city. It is a technology
that is not just about flexibility of time, convenience or having a
career. It is about having a state of mind that seeks to reach
professional excellence. And when you are homebound, it is much
more challenging because you are all alone at home, have no-one to
fall back on and you still have to do superior work. If you have
the right people with clear cut training, it is a win win situation
on both sides."

According to TN Raju, in charge, operations, Focus Infosys, "Those
who work from home will have to be formally trained and have hands
on experience with some company. There are so many advantages of
employing home transcriptionists like saving on the cost
infrastructure. It is a great opportunity for those who want to
stay at home and have a career."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/articleshow?msid=294757

3) Calif. lawmaker seeks tighter medical data controls

A California lawmaker says she will introduce a bill to prohibit
hospitals from outsourcing data processing to companies outside the
United States after a Pakistan transcriptionist threatened to
expose patient data on the Internet.

"All of that service type of work that we think is being done here
in a very confidential manner is now being sent abroad," Democratic
California State Senator Figueroa said. "That information placed in
the wrong hands could be devastating to an individual."

Amy Buckmaster, president of the American Association for Medical
Transcription, recommends that hospitals contract with certified
transcriptionists.

"I don't think the issue is where the work is being done as much as
are qualified people doing it," she said. "Anytime documentation
leaves the facility there is a risk."

All the major U.S. privacy laws allow outsourcing if the
appropriate safeguards are in place, said Peter Swire, a professor
at Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University and former chief
privacy counselor for the Clinton administration.

"The biggest danger to privacy and security is not the hacker that
is 'out there.' The biggest danger is well-intentioned but poorly
trained staff," said Ira Victor, president of Privacy Technician, a
security and regulatory compliance consultancy.

http://www.forbes.com/markets/newswire/2003/11/20/rtr1155981.html

4) Local BPOs one-stop shops now

Healthcare segment is domain-specific. Hence most companies focus
not just on the heathcare vertical, but also on the horizontal.
Healthscribe and CBay are almost completely focused on medical
transcription. Apollo Health Street plans to focus on medical
coding. Vision Healthsource has diversified into healthcare,
offering medical coding, billing, contact centre, claims
processing. But it shied away from medical transcription, a
specialised area.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/articleshow?msid=294244

5) Racing up the cyber highway

Manipur is set to become the second state in the Northeast after
Assam to have a Software Technology Park of India (STPI). If
everything comes out according to plan, the 40th STPI in the
country will be opened here on the Republic Day next year, thanks
to initiatives taken by chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh.

Everything was finalised after the chief minister invited S.
Zindal, the director general of STPI, to Imphal to conduct a
survey. Officials claim that the director-general was impressed
when he found out that in Imphal more than 40 youths were working
on medical transcription even though proper Internet connectivity
and other infrastructure are lacking here. Ibobi Singh has already
provided a 3.2-acre plot and a building for the proposed STPI in
Imphal at the Manipur State Road Transport Corporation complex. The
corporation was wound up some time ago.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/031111/58/29aze.html
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. S. Would you like to share this  newsletter with your friends
or post  it on your site?  Please do! But also be sure to read
below:

All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2003
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd.  All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site
as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.

Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
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15 Nov 2003
********************************************************

Going overseas won't solve the problem?

********************************************************
Dear Friends,

As the MTIA International Committee Chair goes about developing the
proposed 2004 business seminars to be held in India and
Philippines; this is the latest from the AAMT Executive Director, I
quote:

"To read the article "As Economy Gains, Outsourcing Surges" (Boston
Globe, Hiawatha Bray, 11/02/03) the reader would believe that
sending medical transcription offshore to the Philippines could
save the U.S. healthcare system millions in labor costs. Not so -
in fact, the elaborate web of transcription subcontractors that vie
for business in the industry are the real culprits in escalating
the costs in this business - not the transcriptionist. Going
overseas for transcription service won't solve the problem.

If healthcare executives would cut out the many layers of middlemen
and pay more directly for transcription services, much of the $20
billion a year industry could be redirected to risk management and
patient safety, thereby driving down the costs of expensive medical
errors and lag times in documentation. Recognizing the role medical
transcriptionists play in documenting healthcare encounters, these
professionals offer great value as medical language specialists in
quality assurance and continuity of care. Driving out U.S.
transcriptionists merely to pay for cheaper labor overseas is
shortsighted and threatens to take another bite out of quality in
the U.S. healthcare system.

Fix the system with the U.S. transcriptionist by maintaining
rigorous educational standards, recognize credentialed
transcriptionists, and reform the workplace to meet the realities
of the electronic medical record and evolving health information
infrastructure. Healthcare in America will get a better return on
that investment."

This gentleman does manage to confuse me - what is trying to say?

1) That offshore transcription doesn't offer a cost advantage?

Then why does he think transcription is going overseas? Because of
a shortage of US MTs?

2) That many layers of middlemen take away the margins?

Now don't we all know that! Removing subcontractors would help the
offshore industry to a great extent, in both costs and
deliverables. I hope he starts an information campaign to that
effect, amongst HMOs.

3) That offshore MT quality can't be at par with that done in the
US?

That's contradictory to all evidence - he should be speaking with
those who get their work done offshore, rather than with those
whose only agenda is to ban offshore outsourcing.

4) Fix the US Healthcare system?

I am extremely surprised to see that he can't appreciate that when
HMOs are forced to invest, they shall do so on long term
technological alternatives to transcription like structured data
entry in electronic patient records and speech recognition; and not
in training or furthering the cause of transcriptionists.

In our last newsletter, I quoted Claudia Tessier, the past and
long-term CEO of the AAMT, where she felt "Transcriptionists will
increasingly fall short of meeting changing demands for health care
information capture , including greater accuracy and point-of-care
documentation."

Here I am seeing the present Executive Director of the AAMT making
statements which fall short of comprehending changing demands - let
alone meeting them!

"A person going nowhere can be sure of reaching his destination"

We invite our members to discuss this further at the forum:
http://www.mtindia.org/Forum/default.cfm

Chio!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

"It takes years to become an overnight success! Inch by inch, it's
a cinch."

*****************************************************************
ADVERTISEMENT
-------------------------------------
Require MT/QAs at Mumbai
-------------------------------------

A major Transcription and Healthcare Solutions provider in US for
more than 3 years with a transcription unit in Mumbai, Andheri-E.
Immediate job openings for 70 MTs and 20 QAs. Accommodation will be
provided for out-of-state candidates.

To know more, see: www.mdictation.com

Apply in confidence to:
Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
amit@...

***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
------------------------

1) Salary hike boom for back-room boys

A Hewitt Associates' survey has shown that IT-enabled professionals
in India had the highest pay hike this year with an average
increase of 14 per cent among employees in all sectors in the
Asia-Pacific region.

This year's increase was, however, 10 percentage points lower than
the industry's average salary increase in 2002.

"IT-enabled services like call centres, transaction processing
centres, medical transcription centres and other business process
outsourcing (BPO) units are showing the highest growth in salary
and the trend will continue," Hewitt's India business consulting
leader Nishchae Suri said.

After India, employees in the Philippines enjoyed the biggest
average salary increases, ranging from 7.1 per cent to 8.6 per cent
across job categories, compared with the respective 2002 figures of
6.4 per cent to almost 10 per cent.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1031112/asp/business/story_2562528.as
p

2) US divided over outsourcing of jobs

American experts are divided over the issue of outsourcing white
collar jobs from the country with some being of the opinion that it
may slow down the nation's job growth, while others stating that
the phenomenon was healthy for the country as it could create more
sophisticated jobs doing away with less productive ones.

Jobs vulnerable to the new way of outsourcing, they said include
medical transcription services, stock-market research for financial
firms, customer-service call centres, legal online-database
research, and payroll and other 'back office activities'.

They argue that the positions feature vulnerability-producing
attributes such as a lack of face-to-face customer service, work
processes that enable telecommuting and Internet work, high wage
differentials between countries, a high information content, low
social-networking requirements, and low set-up costs.

A coalition of Indian government officials, business groups and
influential Indian Americans has quietly launched an extensive
lobbying campaign here to counter allegations that the country was
taking an unfair number of high-end US jobs.
India is paying several high-priced Washington lobbying and law
firms to craft a campaign extolling the benefits to the US of
closer economic ties with India.

http://www.rediff.com/money/2003/nov/14bpo.htm

3) Who's Reading Your X-Ray?

Anjay Saini was not prepared for the hate mail. A radiologist at
Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Saini thought he had found a
clever way to relieve an acute shortage of specialists who could
read X-rays and M.R.I. scans. The hospital would beam images
electronically from some scans to India, to be worked on by
radiologists there.

Since the news got out, Dr. Saini has received a flurry of angry
e-mail messages, most of them anonymous, urging him to stop. The
American College of Radiology, the professional group for the
country's 30,000 radiologists, has set up a task force to look at
the offshore transfer of radiology services. "This teleradiology
thing is another nail in the coffin of the job market," wrote
someone on the Web site who identified himself as a radiologist.
"Who needs to pay us $350,000/yr if they can get a cheap Indian
radiologist for $25,000/yr."

Coding - the assignment of numbers for medical procedures to
bills - is also heading offshore. The American Academy of
Professional Coders now has chapters in India. Companies have
sprung up to offer services like billing and transcription in
India. For example, Ajuba International Inc., based in Novi, Mich.,
does the billing follow-up for Botsford Hospital. And Manor Care
Inc., an operator of nursing homes, owns the majority of Heartland
Information Services of Toledo, Ohio, which does the transcription
in India for the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.

"People want to protect their turf," Dr. Saini of Massachusetts
General said. "But it's very interesting that that turf battle
stops at 5 p.m. on Friday. How many people say they want to do this
thing on Saturday and Sunday?" Indeed, not every posting on the
radiology Web site has criticized Dr. Saini. Some favored using
foreign radiologists. "If we don't hire them, we'll be working
longer hours for the same pay," one person wrote. "So everyone
please shut up about this."

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/16/business/yourmoney/16hosp.html?ex
=1069563600&en=2bdbe240146876a4&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

4) MT spectacle to sister being gored to death

Promila Aswal left her house to drop her elder sister, Aruna, at
her medical transcription office in Sector 34. The jaunt took them
to the Sector 23-24 dividing road. A little ahead of the traffic
lights, two bulls were fighting on the road divider.

"The Kinetic hit the bull lightly. In rage, the animal turned
around and attacked my sister," recalls Aruna still in shock.
Thrown down on the road with the impact, Aruna and Sanjay watched
in horror as the bull's horns pierced Promila's stomach. "People
around rushed to help us. They succeeded in shooing away the bull,
but it was too late," adds Aruna, breaking down.

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=68160

5) Is Philippines ready for the ICT revolution?

These technology level indicators are very important because ICT
and knowledge-industry investors will go only to countries where
their requirements not only for manpower but also for these
important infrastructure and facilities will be met. In fact, the
types of businesses that are currently evolving and becoming
dominant in the ICT field are gravitating toward locations where
there is a concentration or critical mass of such high technology
facilities, since this is important for their own competitiveness.
Although we may not have fully tapped yet the potentials of
low-end, manpower-intensive operations like call centers or even
medical transcription centers, which have relatively simple
requirements in terms of technology and facilities, these are
already gradually reaching a saturation point and can no longer be
expected to be major drivers of our ICT competitiveness.

http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2003/nov/12/opinion/20031112opi
2.html

6) Bangladesh rings in all-pleasing net telephony

After years of keeping it on hold, Bangladesh has finally legalised
Internet telephony, ringing in an era of cheap communications that
may help it grab a slice of the rapidly growing telecom business.

Entrepreneurs will now be able to set up commercial call centres
and offer Internet-based services, including medical transcription.

http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullne
ws&id=598

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. S. Would you like to share this  newsletter with your friends
or post  it on your site?  Please do! But also be sure to read
below:

All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2003
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd.  All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site
as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.

Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
----------------------------------------------------------------
Please DO NOT reply to this mail id to unsubscribe.

MT India Newsletter

To subscribe to this group, send an email to:
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08 Nov 2003
********************************************************

Wake up and smell the coffee...

********************************************************
Dear Friends,

Way back in '98, the commonest question I was asked by MTs was,
"Will speech recognition take over our jobs?" With due diligence I
would answer, "Not in the next decade." Five years later, the
commonest question I am asked is, "Will offshore outsourcing be
banned?"

Across the world, the greatest concerns aired by US MTs were the
compromise in quality, TAT, and privacy. Today the prime concern
is, "Will I lose my job to a cheaper service, from India?" This
concern is a due reflection of the US economy, and actual loss of
jobs in other white collared sectors like IT.

I am referring to a write up by Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, THINK-Health,
where she quotes Claudia Tessier, Executive Director, MoHCA ( and
the past and long-term CEO of the AAMT):

"Transcriptionists will increasingly fall short of meeting changing
demands for health care information capture, including greater
accuracy and point-of-care documentation coupled with decision
support software and increased awareness of the value of structured
text and standardized vocabularies"

Claudia goes on to add "A large population of transcriptionists
sees no reason to change, and many are resistant to change. Given
the continuing, huge volume of transcription that cannot be met by
the equally huge number of transcriptionists, they don't recognize
that among the solutions for meeting that demand is designing and
using alternative documentation methods. And, since the average age
of an MT is early to mid-40s, many believe the changes won't happen
rapidly enough to influence their careers before retirement."

Unfortunately, as I see a significant portion of clients harnessing
the powers of computing to decrease transcription requirements -
electronic entry, speech recognition etc.; I do not see any effort
by Indian MTs to keep "in touch." A majority do not know what goes
on beyond their office walls, forget about keeping in touch with
the profession.

Surprisingly, most Indian MTs rely on their employers to take the
lead on their professional development. Many employers do;
nevertheless, it is only fair to expect them to be guided by their
own business interests.

Job security does not stimulate professionalism; but professionals
do carry the responsibility for their jobs on their own shoulders.

Will the professional MT stand up?

We invite our members to discuss this further at the forum:
http://www.mtindia.org/Forum/default.cfm

Chio!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

"It takes years to become an overnight success! Inch by inch, it's
a cinch."

***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
------------------------

1) As Economy Gains, Outsourcing Surges

To hear how far and deep the outsourcing of American jobs has
traveled, listen to Christian Mancenon in barely accented English
take an order over the phone for HBO from a man in Lebanon, Ill.
"I'm showing here that you love movies," the 25-year-old Filipino
said, while looking at his computer screen in a low-rise building
in Makati, Manila's business district. Mancenon and 600 others work
for a subsidiary of Philippines Long Distance Telephone Co. that
fields customer calls for Dish Network satellite TV of Littleton,
Colo.

Like India, Pakistan, and Russia, the Philippines has a growing
share of the world's high-tech jobs that have fled high-cost
places, such as Massachusetts and California's Silicon Valley. But
even workers filling customer orders, with few skills, have trouble
competing with the $300 a month Mancenon is paid in the
Philippines, one-fifth of what a worker in the United States would
get for doing the same job.

The spread of outsourcing, beyond hard-hit technology workers, is a
big reason the US economic recovery so far is a jobless one, and
has stayed that way much longer than in previous upturns. A study
released recently from the University of California at Berkeley
says the country lost more than 1 million white-collar jobs in the
1990s and "hundreds of thousands more since the turn of the
century."

Most Philippine outsourcing jobs do not go to software engineers.
The biggest boom comes in lower-skilled technology work like
medical transcription. Consider eData Services, a Manila company
that provides an 800 phone number in the United States for doctors
to dial in and dictate medical information. The eData workers, all
of whom hold a degree related to medical care -- usually nursing or
physical therapy -- type it up. Doctors working for eData part time
act as editors and check the accuracy of the work. Once it is
verified, the transcripts are e-mailed back to doctors' offices in
the United States.

Nonetheless, despite the training in American English and pop
culture, Mancenon estimated that 3 of 10 callers realize they are
speaking to someone outside America: "If they ask us if we're
American, we proudly say 'no.' "

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1102-10.htm

2) Max Healthscribe Ltd receives ISO 9001:2000 certification

Max HealthScribe Limited, received the ISO9001: 2000 certification
for its Management System. This certification formally recognizes
Healthscribe`s focus on Quality which, as spelt out by COO Suresh
Nair "stretches deep below the surface into every facet of the
organization."

Commenting on the certification he said "Obtaining the ISO
Certification is only the first step in building a Customer focused
Quality Management System. We intend using this as a framework to
further refine our delivery systems so that we anticipate and
exceed our customers expectations. The plan is continually to
improve on all facets of management which includes processes,
systems and human resource management and strive towards achieving
excellence in everything that we do. We shall continue our endeavor
to achieve 100% accuracy and quality. We have an accuracy level of
99.2%, when compared to the industry expectation of 98%."

This certification has been obtained from DNV, the reputed
Certification Body for Quality Management Systems.

3) Two suspended for sending threat mails to Heartland

Two employees of Heartland, a multi-national company which is into
medical transcription business, have been charged with sending a
threat-mail to the company.

The suspects are Vasanth and Sunil Subash of Heartland, a US-based
company with its headquarters at Ohio. According to the police, the
Company had received a mail on October 28 in which the sender had
threatened to make the 'patient confidentiality information'
public. As disclosing patient confidentiality information is a
serious breach of business contract, Heartland had earlier
announced Rs 5 lakh award to anyone who could provide it with clues
that would aid in identifying the sender.

In the meantime, Heartland conducted its investigations and on
October 29 traced the mail's originating point to a cyber cafe in
BMT Layout's Vysya Bank Colony. Following this, the Company
officials zeroed in on Vasanth and Sunil as they were spotted near
the cyber cafe. Subsequently, the two were suspended and a police
complaint was lodged against them by Mr V Lakshminarayanan, General
Manager of Heartland's branch in the City.

http://www.karnataka.com/common/indiainfo/more.html

4) 'Huge opportunities in BPO segment'

The future does not exit today. What you see is the early stages of
BPO. The first stage was Medical Transcription (MT), second stage
was call centres where business came in large volumes and got
everybody's attention. Several companies have done phenomenal job
meeting customer demands. Many companies including Citibank, GE,
HSBC, Dell, AOL, etc. jumped into the fray. What we are now
beginning to see in the past one year is genuine back office
outsourcing businesses.

http://sify.com/news/internet/fullstory.php?id=13301520

5) Acusis Announces Vice President of Sales Appointment

Acusis(R), announced that Christopher Caruso will be joining the
Company on November 10, 2003 as Vice President of Sales. In this
senior position, he will use extensive experience derived from his
sales and management past to build on the current short term sales
initiatives as well as the long term sales direction and vision for
the Company.

Caruso will be leading and managing a skilled and growing national
sales force and using his previously demonstrated leadership and
reputation for channeling relevant urgency into the medical
transcription and customer environment. According to Acusis
President and CEO, David Iwinski, Jr., "With such a wide
outsourcing services market opportunity, it can be a challenge to
address every lead possibility, especially when the Company's
excellent reputation precedes it. Chris' communication style along
with his experience in sales force and channel partnership
development will greatly assist the Company to grow. Acusis places
high priority on continuous expansion of our existing and new
customer relationships."

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId
=news_view&newsId=20031107005079&newsLang=en

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. S. Would you like to share this  newsletter with your friends
or post  it on your site?  Please do! But also be sure to read
below:

All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2003
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd.  All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site
as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.

Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
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01 Nov 2003
********************************************************

Medical transcribers need more protection?

********************************************************
Dear Friends,

Many of you would have been following the SFC article on the
Pakistani MT's methodology of recovering her dues. What caught the
eye was the AAMT, Executive director's comments to the editor,
quoted below:
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Editor -- Dr. P.D. Allen's letter ("Transcription puts patients'
data at risk,'' Letters to Business, Oct. 28) misses the mark on
this issue. The only thing that keeps medical information private
is the integrity of the individual.

The American Association for Medical Transcription promotes a code
of ethics and protection of individuals' health information.
Enforcement of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
guidelines holds U.S. medical transcriptionists, whether home-based
or in a hospital or clinic, to the letter of the law -- unlike our
overseas counterparts.

What Allen fails to recognize is the integral role that the medical
transcriptionist plays in health information technology. Although
invisible to the public, medical transcriptionists produce, massage
and edit the lion's share of data in this $20 billion industry.

The health care industry must push for greater protections for the
transcriptionist, including greater accountability, recognition of
certification and support for improved education.

PETER PREZIOSI
Executive Director
American Association for Medical Transcription
ModestoCheers!
-------------------------------------------------------------------
To reiterate, this is of relevance:

"Enforcement of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
guidelines holds U.S. medical transcriptionists, whether home-based
or in a hospital or clinic, to the letter of the law -- unlike our
overseas counterparts."

It would be interesting to know how Peter arrived at the above
conclusion. It would be also interesting to know what he proposes
to do to correct the above perception.

"If you don't have a solution, you are part of the problem."

We invite our members to discuss these issues further at the forum
http://www.mtindia.org/Forum/default.cfm

Chio!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

"It takes years to become an overnight success! Inch by inch, it's
a cinch."

***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
------------------------

1) Medical transcription cos begin to transcribe right prescription

In Hyderabad, the medical transcription community came together
over a year back to form an association to share resources and
information and to promote understanding of the business. The
Indian Association of Medical Records Services (IAMR) is an
alliance of several leading companies in the field of medical
records services, most of them from Hyderabad and other cities in
Andhra Pradesh.

According to Alok Singh of VasantScribes, twenty of the largest
businesses from Hyderabad and other cities came together to form
IAMR, while being actively supported by several other companies.

Ramakrishna Tummala, the president of IAMR and MD of Worldtech,
said: "Within a radius of 1 km, we estimate 1600 medical
transcriptionists are at work at this moment. Their earnings are in
the average range of 6000 to 10,000. There are hardly any entry
barriers for this profession... Another advantage in this field is
that it is a day time job, with most services offering flexible
timings, unlike other online BPOs like call centers."

IAMR members have also agreed to abide by a set of guidelines for
recruitment and to develop practices to discourage poaching and
indiscriminate job-hopping.

The members of IAMR meet regularly to share information, best
practices, hold workshops and seminars. Their latest meeting held
today had guest speaker M M Balasubrahmanium from Center for
Organizational and Professional Excellence, Chennai, who delivered
a lecture on 'Management of Quality Performance.' Venkata Reddy of
the Vemana Institute of Yoga, delivered a presentation on
CyberYoga, Yoga Remedies for the IT worker. Earlier, IAMR conducted
workshops on HIPAA, the recently enacted privacy and security
regulations in the US.

http://www.business-standard.com/today/story.asp?Menu=23&story=2603
9

2) Medical Transcription Cos Chart Code Of Conduct To Retain Staff

After the IT Enabled Services/ Business Process Outsourcing
(ITES/BPO) sector, it is now the turn of the medical transcription
(MT) industry to draw up a 'code of conduct' to control rampant
poaching by rival companies.

Some of the important guidelines drawn up by IAMR include:

* Employment should not be given to anyone who has not spent a
minimum of 12 months with the previous employer;

* An applicant who apply for his/her third job in two years should
be rejected;

* All recruitment of trained personnel among member companies will
be undertaken only after discussions and exchange of information
with previous employers;

* A standard template for relieving letter will be prepared and
circulated to members so that there is uniformity of available
data;

* Signatories will not encourage part-time opportunities,
especially where the candidate is spending the remaining time also
doing MT services;

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=45149

3) Bill to block California Hospitals from sending Medical Data
Overseas

Following news that a Pakistani medical transcriber threatened to
post UCSF Medical Center patient records online unless she received
more money, a state senator said she will introduce legislation
barring all California hospitals from allowing medical data to
leave the country.

Sen. Liz Figueroa, D-Fremont, said she will introduce the bill in
January when the state Senate returns for its next regular session.
What she and other framers of the state's medical-privacy laws,
which prohibit the sharing of medical information unless for clear
medical purposes, didn't see coming is the explosive growth of the
$20 billion medical- transcription industry.

Figueroa said her bill would prohibit anyone possessing information
involving California patients from sending that information abroad.
State hospitals would likely be barred from outsourcing
transcription work unless they could guarantee that all related
files remain within the country -- a move that would make hospitals
accountable for any subcontracting that ensues. "We're not banning
the practice of overseas workers doing transcription," Figueroa
said. "But we can regulate the practice of medicine within
California."

Figueroa expects the health care industry to fight the legislation,
just as the banking industry opposed state restrictions on the use
of customers' information. But she thinks that in light of the
public's increased sensitivity toward privacy matters, her bill
would eventually pass.

"The interesting thing will be to see where our new governor stands
on privacy issues," Figueroa said. "At this point, we don't know."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/10/26/BUGIN2J
2A01.DTL

4) Medical transcription in consolidation phase

THE medical transcription business which made waves a few years ago
has not grown as expected and the sector is passing through a phase
of consolidation, with issues relating to manpower constraints,
quality and attrition coming to the fore.

According to Mr Ramakrishna Tummala, Managing Director of
Worldtech, there is consolidation of best practices leading to
stable playing field and exit of short term profiteering. While
there is increased networking among big players, it is clear that
uniformity of prices and low rates cannot help in sustaining the
industry.

However, there are also concerns about counter measures being taken
against anti-offshoring lobby in the US and evolution of
organisations like MTIA and MTIndia has taken place to face
challenges.

Yet another trend shows that there is lateralisation, with
development of a bouquet of services like billing, coding and back
office operations.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/bline/2003/10/11/stories/200310
1101710700.htm

5) Transcription puts patients' data at risk

What Lazarus does not say is that all of our privileged information
that is transcribed outside of the institution where the care is
provided is at risk, should any transcriptionist wish to share it
with others for whatever reason. If files are transcribed outside
the institution, that institution will never be certain that those
files have been destroyed after they were transmitted to the
institution.

In my opinion, the real villain (s) here was not the poor Pakistani
physician who got stiffed by a dishonest person and wanted her
proper compensation; rather, it is the hospital and its primary
transcription company for participating in the bad business
practice of not making sure that such a twisted trail of
subcontractors could not exist.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2
003/10/28/BUGUP2KD3B1.DTL&type=business

6) Make a healthy choice when changing careers

Bonnie Bakal, the immediate past president of the American
Association for Medical Transcription, says medical
transcriptionists should be organized and detailed to succeed.

"The medical transcriptionist puts into a good and acceptable
format the dictation that they are transcribing, so that the
information is easy to find. That makes better health care more
efficient," Bakal says. "To do that you need to have a good, basic
knowledge of medical terminology and a real attention to detail."

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment of
medical transcriptionists is projected to grow faster than the
average for all occupations through 2010.

http://www.latimes.com/classified/jobs/la-la_cbtms_2003110218644671
88nov02,1,3312237.story

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. S. Would you like to share this  newsletter with your friends
or post  it on your site?  Please do! But also be sure to read
below:

All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2003
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd.  All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site
as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.

Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
----------------------------------------------------------------
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MT India Newsletter

To subscribe to this group, send an email to:
MTIndia-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

25 October 2003
********************************************************

A Happy Festival of Lights!

********************************************************
Dear Friends,

A Happy Deepawali and Halloween to all!

Do enjoy, and take a well earned break...

And muzzle those who break the sound barrier :o)

Cheers!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

"It takes years to become an overnight success! Inch by inch, it's
a cinch."

***********************************************************
MTIndia Outsourcing Solutions:
+++++++++++++++++++++

MTIndia.org receives about 20 requests for proposals every month
directly from US/UK/Australian clients wanting to outsource their
transcription requirements offshore.

As a corporate member:

o MTSOs will receive these RFPs in real time and will be allowed to
bid directly to the client.

o Clients are assured that only genuine MTSOs are listed on the
site and the information provided by them is verified. MTIndia.org
will also arbitrate with the service providers if the quality of
service provided is below the agreed upon standards.

For membership benefits and subscription details check out:
http://www.mtindia.org/registration/membership.htm

***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
------------------------

1) Writing it all down!

The Internet revolution and advances in digital technology and
telecommunications not only fueled the boom in medical
transcription services but also helped Career Step LLC of
Springville combat theft of its copyrighted materials. Career Step,
took its course online in 2000 - a move that helped the company
control piracy of its textbooks and tapes in
overseas markets such as India.

According to a 2002-03 report by the U.S. Department of Labor, the
number of medical transcribers needed in America is expected to
grow by 30.3 percent in the period from 2000 to 2010. This
represents an increase of about 26,361 medical transcription jobs.

Worldwide access through the Internet and a greater availability of
personal computers, which make at-home work even easier, have led
to increased competition from medical transcription services in
countries such as India. "Being able to transfer compressed sound
files over the Internet and high-speed lines made it possible for
medical transcription to go offshore," Cole said. "Traditionally,
you had to dial a 1-800 number to access the dictation files." Cole
agreed. "Offshore transcribers in India can pick up the pent-up
demand in the United States.

http://www.harktheherald.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=
article&sid=4093

2) Acusis makes its mark at Pittsburgh Technology Council's "Tech
50"

Acusis was named one of the top ten in the Rising Star category, an
honor considering the Tech Council gets hundreds of nominations in
five different categories each year. David Iwinski, Jr. was also
named one of the top five CEOs. The CEO of the Year went to John
Friel, President and CEO of Medrad.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/03290/231803.stm

3) A tough lesson on medical privacy?

On Oct. 7, UCSF officials received an e-mail from Baloch, who
described herself as "a medical doctor by profession." She said
Spires owed her money and had cut off all communication. Baloch
demanded that UCSF find Spires and remedy the situation.

She wrote: "Your patient records are out in the open to be exposed,
so you better track that person and make him pay my dues or
otherwise I will expose all the voice files and patient records of
UCSF Parnassus and Mt. Zion campuses on the Internet." Actual files
containing dictation from UCSF doctors were attached to the e-
mail. The files reportedly involved
two patients.

How can UCSF or any other medical institution prevent something
like this from happening again? Should legislation be passed
barring U.S. medical data from going overseas? "I don't know the
answer to that," responded Amy Buckmaster, president of the
American Association for Medical Transcription. "We don't say that
outsourcing is a terrible thing. We say that it needs to be
disclosed." UCSF has reached the same conclusion.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/10/22/MNGC
O2FN8G1.DTL

4) MEDQUIST Reports Financial Results for Q3

MedQuist Inc. (NASDAQ:MEDQ) reported revenue of $121.2 million,
operating income of $13.5 million and net income of $9.0 million or
$0.24 per diluted share for the three months ended September 30,
2003. For the nine months ended  September 30, 2003 revenue was
$369.3 million, operating income was $48.1 million and net income
was $30.3 million or $0.80 per diluted share. MedQuist is a member
of the Philips Group of Companies.

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId
=news_view&newsId=20031022005997&newsLang=en

5) Vianeta Announces New Customers of Clinical Documentation
Solution

Georgia-based Columbus Regional Healthcare System, Minnesota-based
Fairview Range Regional Health Services and New Mexico-based San
Juan Regional Medical Center join a growing number of medical
facilities that are increasingly using Voice Express Enterprise to
reduce costs and increase efficiency around dictation,
transcription and multi-channel chart distribution. This is
accomplished without disrupting the current behavior of physicians,
HIM staff, coding specialists, billing personnel and
case managers.

Vianeta also announced that CMT Corporation, a San Francisco-based
clinical documentation outsourcing company, has licensed Voice
Express Enterprise as its in-house end-to-end platform for
dictation capture, transcription and chart distribution.

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId
=news_view&newsId=20031020005397&newsLang=en

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. S. Would you like to share this  newsletter with your friends
or post  it on your site?  Please do! But also be sure to read
below:

All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2003
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd.  All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site
as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.

Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
----------------------------------------------------------------
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To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
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MT India Newsletter

To subscribe to this group, send an email to:
MTIndia-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

18 October 2003
********************************************************

Yahoo Groups banned in India!

********************************************************
Dear Friends,

For those of you who have been mailing us regarding non receipt of all
MTIndia ezines, as also those not so bothered, please visit the following:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3148288.stm

http://www.ciol.com/content/news/2003/103092608.asp?nl=ctt-9_26_2003

At present all MTIndia ezines are hoisted at Yahoo! We have now backed up
our data from Yahoo, and are in the process of shifting to our own servers.
Until such time, we will continue this newsletter with Yahoo, however we
will be handicapped by not being able to access the administrative options
online - something like a double blind clinical trial!

If this newsletter goes through fine and the Feds don't pick me up for
sending it :o), we will also be sending you the jobs newsletter in text
format. The coffee break is suspended temporarily, until we are back to HTML
publishing (which should be very soon).

As for the MTID, our oldest and staunchest group, it has been on my mind for
quite some time. You would have noticed that the publication become
irregularly irregular since after MT week. Though this particular group is
over 5 years old and with over a 5000 strong membership, relevant and
thought provoking posts had become less and less frequent. As you know, MTID
is a moderated discussion list, where content is the discussion generated by
members. I frankly am of the opinion that the MTID needs a fresh person at
the helm and some new blood - and a bit of rekindling. So until that fresh
blood surfaces, I will lay this list to rest for the time being. I invite
our members to discuss this issue at the Forum (should they be so inclined):
http://mtindia.org/forum/default.cfm

Do enjoy the festivities, and take a well earned break!

Cheers!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

"It takes years to become an overnight success! Inch by inch, it's a cinch."

***********************************************************
ADVERTISEMENT:
+++++++++++++++
Home Based Medical Transcriptionists:

We are a three year old company executing half a million lines per month at
Nagpur. We are sourcing work from our sister concern Ascent Services Inc. We
are looking to expand our operations and  require experienced Home Based
Medical Transcriptionists. Work is available for both night/day shifts.

MT's should have a minimum work experience of 6 months in a live production
environment. MT's with established infrastructure and capable of
transcribing 250+ lines ( final edit job) per day of client acceptable
quality may please write to us at  info@...

***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
------------------------

1) Offshore outsourcing rumbles along

The outsourcing of medical transcription services shows no signs of abating,
according to several industry experts. If anything, it signals the possible
exodus of other "non-core" medical jobs to far-flung nations where the work
can be done cheaper.

John McCarthy, group director for research at Cambridge, Mass.-based
Forrester Research, says exporting transcription jobs is "old news."

Chris Hopkins, director of corporate recruiting and retention at
transcription service Medquist, Marlton, N.J., says domestic
transcriptionists aren't losing jobs, or salary. In fact, he says, offshore
outsourcing results from a shortage of U.S. workers.

Analysts, consultants and transcription firms cite cases where--as a result
of the 25 to 60 percent cost savings on labor--transcription companies in
places like India are able to afford superior infrastructure with greater
security than is available in America.

Though it may be a bitter pill for domestic transcriptionists to swallow, it
is true that offshore transcription work often is superior to what is
produced domestically, says Linda McAuley, a vice president and consultant
at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young's Los Angeles offices.

http://www.healthcare-informatics.com/issues/2003/10_03/trends.htm

2) Spryance to invest $5 m for Medical Transcription

Spryance Inc, a healthcare BPO firm, is infusing $ five million in its India
operations to augment its medical transcription (MT) activity by upgrading
its Quality Assessment (QA) hub at Tidel Park, Chennai, and to install a
second QA facility as a back up and for catering to increasing global demand
for high value health information management (HIM).

Raj Malhotra, president and CEO, Spryance Inc, said, 'since we started
three-and-half years ago we had phenomenal progress in the medical
transcription market and will be leveraging our proven technology and
infrastructure into new arena of health care management like billing and
coding outsourcing'.

Spryance India Pvt Ltd (SIPL), does sub-contract MT processing for over 125
US hospitals and clinics through 35 medical transcription service
organisations (MTSOs) with a growth exceeding 25 per cent in the past
consecutive 12 quarters. The soft arm of the World Bank, the International
Finance Corporation (IFC) ploughed in $3 mn and another $4 mn contributed by
management, resulting in the paid up equity of $ seven million for the
Spryance, Inc. For India operations, Spryance is now investing $ five
million taking its overall investment in the country to $ nine million till
date.

http://newstodaynet.com/17sep/bu1.htm

3) HealthScribe Increases Ownership Share in India-Based Operation

HealthScribe, Inc., announced it has signed an agreement to acquire Max
India Limited's equity stake in Max HealthScribe Limited (MHL) increasing
HealthScribe's current ownership in MHL to a controlling interest of
approximately 85%. MHL, originally founded by HealthScribe in 1994, provides

medical transcription services to hospitals, clinics and physician practice
groups through a joint venture arrangement with HealthScribe Inc.

"HealthScribe's increased equity stake in MHL is a key component of our
growth strategy as we continue building the premier BPO Services Company in
the US. Fundamental to our approach is the continued development of balanced
resources within both the US and offshore rather than focusing singularly on
the utilization of US or offshore resources," stated Dave Ehrhardt,
HealthScribe's President and COO. "This balance in resources allows
HealthScribe to provide the highest quality and most timely services in the
industry while maintaining competitiveness in pricing."

http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=57975

4) ACUSIS Announces Appointment of Technical Training Manager

Acusis announced that Changhsu Peter Liu has joined the Company in the role
of Technical Training Manager, the second strategically created technical
position for the Company in the last month. The position is designed to
highlight the company's commitment to technical training as a core
competency for continued corporate success.

In his new role, Liu will be instrumental in leading Acusis to expand the
learning culture, particularly with elearning as it relates to customers and
their specific needs. In addition to increasing overall external process
management and efficiency, Liu will drive the same learning initiatives
internally as cross-departmental processes between operations in India and
the United States.

<http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_vi
ew&newsId=20031016005095&newsLang=en>

5) BPO, ITES growth put at $24 b by '08

THE size of BPO and ITES (IT Enabled Services) business in the country has
been pegged at $21-$24 billion by 2008. Global outsourcing of BPO and ITES
operations to India will continue in the years ahead, according to Mr S.
Mahalingam, Chief Financial Officer of Tata Consultancy Services.

Speaking at a national conference on ITES organised by the Confederation of
Indian Industry, Mr Mahalingam said the ITES segment would grow at a rate
which would be faster than the growth in IT services. In 2002-03, the ITES
industry in India generated a revenue of Rs 11,700 crore, a rise of over 65
per cent from 2001-02.

Growth in the ITES segment would provide a boost for employment generation
and increased foreign exchange earnings. The size of the global market for
ITES is expected to touch $1.2 trillion by 2006. Besides call centres, this
would be accounted for by online information, medical transcription, back
office processing, etc.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2003/09/28/stories/2003092801340100.htm

6) TN on the threshold of a high-growth corridor?

S Mahalingam, chief financial officer, Tata Consultancy Service (TCS),
pointed out to some of the factors and supporting environment that promote
faster IT growth in Chennai notably the abundance of highly- skilled and
technical manpower as many professional colleges have adopted IT syllabus
and focus now on updating with latest advances in emerging technologies. Add
to this, he said 'a reasonably good infrastructure, lower cost of operation
and booming domestic market for hardware and software make the State a hot
spot for outsourcing of a host of IT- enabled services, like BPO, call
centres, medical transcription and various back-office operations for global
firms'. The government policy initiatives should make domestic industry as
the chief driver of IT and ITeS growth and Chennai

http://newstodaynet.com/17oct/rf5.htm

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. S. Would you like to share this  newsletter with your friends
or post  it on your site?  Please do! But also be sure to read
below:

All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2003
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd.  All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site
as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.

Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
----------------------------------------------------------------
Please DO NOT reply to this mail id to unsubscribe.

MT India Newsletter Archives and Subscription @:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MTIndia

06 Sep 2003
********************************************************

Writing Effective Proposals

********************************************************
Dear Friends,

Companies devote tremendous resources toward generating leads, then
fail to invest the time and effort required to close the "last
  mile" between prospect and contract. Failure often results from an
inability to deliver an effective proposal.

That's a shame. Proposals can be your best branding and sales tool.
Companies make the same mistake in proposals that they make in
their branding campaigns. The issue is not about you and your
capabilities; it's about a solution for the prospect that reflects
an understanding of its business issues.

Just as important, it's the start of a relationship and its
ultimate success may well depend on what is said in the proposal.
The seeds of failure are often planted before the proposal is
generated. Many proposals are written with the attitude and
perspective of a cocky fourth-grader with his hand in the air
yelling, "Pick me! Pick me!"

The proposal focuses on all the glowing reasons why the firm should
be picked-but that's not what the prospect is looking for. When
prospects review a stack of proposals, all making indistinguishable
and unprovable claims about "quality," "commitment" and
"satisfaction," they first look for reasons to disqualify
proposals.

Didn't follow the RFP (request for proposal) guidelines? Trash. Too
long? Life's too short. Full of boilerplate? Next!

To avoid being sidelined, put yourself in the prospect's shoes as
soon as work starts on the proposal. Essentially, all successful
proposals fall into two camps. Either they create an opportunity or
they solve a problem more easily or cheaply than prospects could
themselves.

Spend as much time in research, planning and analysis as you do
writing the proposal. Be sure to include a go/no-go decision.
Generating a proposal can cost tens of thousands of dollars, and
sometimes the outcome or prospect is not worth the effort.

In the long run, success rates will increase significantly if there
is a process behind proposal generation. Although debate continues
about whether proposals should be generated inside or outside the
sales department, 60% of the responsibilities should center around
proposal development and submission, 20% to a proposal "library"
for research and generation, 10% to pipeline and proposal tracking,
and 10% to analysis, including post-mortems, win rates and proposal
development costs.

Cheers!!!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

***********************************************************
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***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
------------------------

1) India to Adopt Data Privacy Rules

Some CIOs worry whether a data protection law would have any teeth
in India's courts. But competition for offshore business should
keep the courts on the straight and narrow. "Nasscom and India
understand how vital a clear policy on data protection and privacy
are to the trust and confidence of foreign clients," says Bierce,
adding that the rules will most likely be enforced by a special
appellate court established under India's Information Technology
Act of 2000.

Nonetheless, CIOs must remain diligent about Indian vendors to
ensure the privacy and security needs of their companies. "India's
privacy legislation is positive, but much more important is for
CIOs to ensure that their outsourcing agreements contain detailed
and precise contractual specifications regarding data privacy and
protections," says Hank Zupnick, senior vice president and CIO of
GE Real Estate, who works with several Indian IT services
companies. Specific remedies for noncompliance should be spelled
out in the contract, adds Zupnick, and the contract should have
legal jurisdiction in the state or province where the CIO's company
is headquartered.

http://www.cio.com/archive/090103/tl_data.html

2) Arab countries need to tap trend of outsourcing services

There is no reason why such Arab countries like Jordan, Lebanon,
Egypt, Bahrain and UAE do not become as well important centres for
outsourcing business support services. Companies in India,
Philippines and elsewhere convert dictation by doctors in America
into written medical reports. The value of outsourcing of medical
transcription coming from the US is estimated to reach $4 billion
by 2005.

Only very few companies from the region have so far participated in
the second round of globalisation, even though several Arab
countries do meet the criteria to become centres for outsourcing of
businesses and IT related support services.

http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=96910

3) Who Says Govt Should Exit From Biz?

BPO industry experts have called for increased government sector
participation in order to create a skilled workforce for the BPO
sector. At the ITES summit 2003, organised by CNBC on Thursday,
speakers pointed out the need for increased government and private
sector partnership for the growth of this sector.

Karnataka IT secretary Vivek Kulkarni pointed out that the
difficult challenges in the ITES arena included creation of
worldclass infrastructure, regulatory clearances, people issues,
among others. He opined that most of these issues could be resolved
except for the people issue, that is creation of adequate skilled
workforce. He also called for creation of standards to benchmark
the services provided by BPOs. Nasscom president Kiran Karnik
called for a bigger role for government in creating a good english
speaking, skilled workforce.

http://www.nasscom.org/artdisplay.asp?Art_id=1903

4) $50bn IT exports target achievable: Nasscom chief

National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom)
president Kiran Karnik on Saturday said the export projections of
$50 billion by the year 2008 was well achievable as last year the
exports were worth $10 billion.

Karnik noted that IT was one sector India had the winner and it
would be prudent to create and nurture the talent to meet the
requirements of the global industry.

He also said the proposed legislations against business process
outsourcing (BPO) by western countries would have nil effect on
India as it pertained only to state outsourcing. "Usually BPOs are
business models of companies and are handled by themselves.

"The legislation may not even come through and may have been
floated with an eye on the ensuing polls in the United States," he
added.

http://www.nasscom.org/artdisplay.asp?Art_id=2021

5) India moves up the outsourcing ladder - Major multinationals
move business processes

India's business process outsourcing (BPO) companies are looking at
the opportunity to get into new high-margin business, as major
multinationals are increasingly moving higher-end, analytic
business processes to the country.

The demand for staff with specializations is likely to push up
salaries and increase staff turnover in the Indian outsourcing
industry -- one which is already reeling under a high attrition
rate.

http://www.nasscom.org/artdisplay.asp?Art_id=2022
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. S. Would you like to share this  newsletter with your friends
or post  it on your site?  Please do! But also be sure to read
below:

All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2003
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd.  All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site
as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.

Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
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30 Aug 2003
********************************************************

Indian ITES-BPO Business Delegation visit to US

********************************************************
Dear Friends,

NASSCOM has identified marketing of the India Inc. brand, as a key
enabler for the growth of the Indian ITES-BPO industry, and
participation at international trade fairs and organising business
conferences is an important means of doing this. This marketing
initiative of NASSCOM will be complimented by the India Pavilion @
DMA Annual Conference and Exhibition, which is being held at
Orlando, Florida from 12-15 October 2003.

NASSCOM in association with a professional event management company
is organising the business conferences at New York and Dallas, 16th
to 21st October 2003

NASSCOM expects over 100 decision-makers to participate at the
conference, including customers', influencers, analyst community
and academia etc. Endeavors will be to ensure high-level
participation from customers who are looking to outsource to India.

The program at each location will be a one-day event. It will
consist of presentations on case studies from customer perspective,
legal issues related to outsourcing, analyst viewpoint on country
competitiveness, reality check on infrastructure and facilities
available in India and networking meeting with the conference
attendees.

Members desirous of participating at the above event must fill
apply to NASSCOM latest by 10 September 2003. For further details
contact shahab@....

The delegation will be limited to 15-20 only. NASSCOM recommends
that companies desirous of participating at the event to nominate
their representative based in United States. Only one participant
from each company is allowed to participate at each city. NASSCOM
will invite customers to participate with strong qualification
criteria. However, vendor's participation from US will be
restricted to provide greater customers presence at the business
conference.

Cheers!!!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"
***********************************************************
A comprehensive textbook for MTs:

"Medical Transcription Made Easy" by Alok Jha & Priyanka Arora
     ~ A Macmillan India Publication

for details, see:
http://www.mtindia.org/mtme.htm

***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
------------------------

1) Healthcare Providers Reap Benefits of IT Outsourcing

The fact that the healthcare system is ripe for restructured
processes and new technology isn't new - the concept of full
information technology (IT) outsourcing to transform the business
or process is.

It is common for hospitals to outsource processes like medical
records, transcription and registration to separate vendors,
however using one vendor to handle all of these processes is a
pattern that is expected to grow. According to the Gartner's
Spending and Staffing Survey, more than 58 percent of integrated
delivery systems have outsourced at least one Information
Technology function. This is up from 52 percent in 2000, and 47
percent in 1999. (Gartner Research Note, "Outsourcing Experiences
Vary for Healthcare Providers", J Gabler, 07 June 2002).

http://www.csc.com/features/2002/69.shtml

2) Gov't creating standard for medical transcription

The Center for International Trade Exhibitions and Missions (CITEM)
is working with the Technical Education and Skills Development
Authority (TESDA) to develop a standard for medical transcription
(MT) training courses for schools.

In a press interview, Ma. Josephine B. Gonzalez, CITEM IT Services
and Electronics division chief said yesterday that the agency is
now standardizing MT training skills for schools.

"We're hoping that we can finalize the standard in MT skills this
year. There's an increasing demand of health information management
in US while there's a problem in the supply of the quality
workers," Ms. Gonzales said. She said that six MT companies will
participate in the MT Conference in Chicago, US on August 26 to 28
this year.

Ms. Gonzales said that CITEM is also working out to form a MT
organization in the country.

http://itmatters.com.ph/news/news_07172003e.html

3) Acusis Announces Support for the MTIA Billing Method Principles

After some time in compliance with MTIA's customer-based guidelines
and protocols, Acusis has also developed a set of internal
principled billing parameters. AcuCount, the Company's solution to
straightforward and automated line pricing, has a clearly defined
methodology and auditable invoice detail, in line with those
principles set forth by MTIA.

Acusis and MTIA are committed to preserving the creativity and
diversity in the medical transcription industry. MTIA's Billing
Principles are designed with companies like Acusis in mind --
companies who create their own processes but respect the billing
fundamentals set forth by an industry-respected organization like
MTIA. According to MTIA's Executive Director, Molly Malone, "Our
organization is vigilant in promoting best practice billing
situations in the medical transcription industry which are clear,
fair and understandable to our clients -- the doctors, hospitals
and clinics who have a lot at stake and need accurate and reliable
service across the board."

http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/cb_headline.cgi?&story_file=bw.
082603/232385384&directory=/google&header_file=header.htm&footer_fi
le=

4) MedQuist Names Tim Stack New Chief Executive Officer

MedQuist Inc. announced that R. Timothy Stack will join the company
as President and Chief Executive Officer on October 1, 2003. He
succeeds David Cohen, who retired as President and CEO on July 6,
2003.

Mr. Stack joins the company from Piedmont Medical Center, where he
served most recently as President and Chief Executive Officer. He
has served on MedQuist's Board of Directors from 1997 through 2000.
MedQuist is a member of the Philips Group of Companies.

http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/cb_headline.cgi?&story_file=bw.
082703/232395065&directory=/google&header_file=header.htm&footer_fi
le=

5) Stedman's Introduces New Smartype Software for Accurate
Speedtyping

Lippincott Williams & Williams recently announced the release of
Stedman's Smartype(R), the latest software to join the Stedman's
brand of medical resources. Stedman's Smartype brings accuracy and
speed together in a single integrated tool for medical
transcription.

After joining forces with Smartype, the transcription industry's
leading speedtyping software, Stedman's re-worked and enhanced the
product with its own extensive medical terminology to offer a
built-in vocabulary of more than 80,000 words, compared to 36,000
for the former product.

http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/cb_headline.cgi?&story_file=bw.
081903/232315569&directory=/google&header_file=header.htm&footer_fi
le=
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. S. Would you like to share this  newsletter with your friends
or post  it on your site?  Please do! But also be sure to read
below:

All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2003
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd.  All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site
as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.

Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
----------------------------------------------------------------
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MT India Newsletter Archives and Subscription @:
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23 Aug 2003
********************************************************

Summit on outsourcing in Bangalore

********************************************************
Dear Friends,

Bangalore will play host to a summit on outsourcing, the Indian
chapter of the highly acclaimed 'Outsourcing World Summit Series',
focussing on India-sensitive issues for two days from October 15.

The summit, to be held for the first time in India, would be hosted
by the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) and would bring
together international companies, Indian service providers, thought
leaders and legal experts and analysts.

The event would focus on India-sensitive topics such as selling
outsourcing offshore, brand and marketing presence and legal and
contractual issues, a statement by the summit organizers said.

'The 2003 India Outsourcing Summit' would see the presence of over
30 international delegates, many of whom would also be touring and
visiting organizations across India, it said.

The summit is produced by Michael F Corbett and Associates, a
leading authority on outsourcing and organizers of the Outsourcing
World Summit Conference Series, in association with Trade Fairs and
Conferences International (TFCI) and Fortune Custom Projects and
supported by Nasscom, the statement added.

Cheers!!!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"
***********************************************************
A comprehensive textbook for MTs:

"Medical Transcription Made Easy" by Alok Jha & Priyanka Arora
     ~ A Macmillan India Publication

for details, see:
http://www.mtindia.org/mtme.htm

***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
------------------------

1) Interim Final Rule for Electronic Submission

On August 15, 2003, the Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS) published the Final Rule for Electronic Submission of
Medicare Claims. This rule implements the statutory requirement
found in the Administrative Simplification Compliance Act (ASCA).
ASCA requires (with a few exceptions) all claims sent to the
Medicare Program be submitted electronically starting October 16,
2003.  ASCA was enacted by Congress to improve the administration
of the Medicare program by increasing efficiencies gained through
additional electronic claims submission.  Although 86.1 percent of
Medicare claims are submitted electronically, the volume of paper
claims is substantial, and moving from paper to electronic
submissions has the potential for significant savings for Medicare
physicians, practitioners, suppliers, and other health care
providers, as well as for the program itself.  This Rule sets forth
the details for implementation of the Medicare electronic claims
submission requirement and who may be exempt from these
requirements.

http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800/edocket.acces
s.gpo.gov/2003/pdf/03-20955.pdf

2) MCH may outsource more work

If Medical Center Hospital decides to use an outside company to do
X-ray transcription work, it could be done with people who already
work for the hospital.

About two months ago, MCH started outsourcing some of its other
medical transcription to C-Bay Transcription when volume got heavy,
said Renee Henderson Earls, community relations director for the
hospital.

http://www.oaoa.com/news/nw081203d.htm

3) BSEL launches Rs 60-cr IT park in Navi Mumbai

BSEL Information Systems (BSEL) has launched a Rs 60-crore
technology park in Navi Mumbai. The park, a 13-storeyed structure
has a built-up area of three lakh square feet. The project has been
accorded clearance as an infrastructure project under the
Industrial Park Scheme.

The project is expected to be ready by June 2004. BSEL, a listed
company, is an exporter of IT services like data conversion,
medical transcription and GIS services. The company has received
bookings worth Rs 25.6 crore till date.

http://in.biz.yahoo.com/030821/103/27334.html

4) Godrej to invest Rs 40 cr in BPO

Consumer products major Godrej would invest more than Rs 40 crore
in the next 12 months in business process outsourcing (BPO) as part
of a major step towards diversification, a top company official
said on Wednesday.

The consumer products behemoth has entered the BPO arena quite
recently and has already invested close to Rs 20 crore in the
venture. "We identified the booming BPO business as a major area of
growth," Godrej said.

Listing out the areas under its BPO business, he said the company
was catering to tour and travel industry, medical transcription and
accounting firms.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow
?msid=139548

5) Healthcare Industry Starts Building and Deploying Solutions Based
on New Microsoft Office System Platform

Microsoft Corp. announced that leading healthcare industry software
vendors, solution providers and organizations have developed a wide
range of solutions that take advantage of the 2003 release of the
Microsoft® Office System as a platform to increase productivity and
improve quality of care. These solutions automate paper-based
processes, streamline workflow and enable workers throughout the
healthcare industry to focus on what they do best: healthcare.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030821/sfth022_1.html

6) Radtke joins Grotech Capital Group

Joel Radtke has joined Grotech as a vice president. Radtke will
focus on investments in companies in the health care services and
medical device industries.

HealthScribe is a Sterling, Va.-based company that provides
outsourced medical transcription services over the Web. Grotech was
the lead investor in HealthScribe's $9 million initial round of
funding and participated in the company's $1 million expansion
round late last year.

In May, Hyman said the health care industry is ripe for outsourcing
business models and new operating technologies, especially those
that address back-office functions. The sheer breadth of the
industry and health care's role as the 800-pound gorilla in the
national economy makes the sector particularly promising for
investors and entrepreneurs.

http://baltimore.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2003/08/11/daily
14.html
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. S. Would you like to share this  newsletter with your friends
or post  it on your site?  Please do! But also be sure to read
below:

All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2003
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd.  All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site
as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.

Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
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09 Aug 2003
********************************************************

Four years ago...

********************************************************
Dear Friends,

On 26 July, 2003, MTIndia quietly completed 4 years online! To
celebrate our coming of kindergarten age, we have launched a new
homepage for a limited period. Enjoy! :o)

Four years ago, on 09 Aug the first MTIndia Newsletter was
published and distributed to exactly 11 members. Going through our
archives, I just picked out a few excerpts from our initial
editions, which might be food for thought:

09 Aug, 1999:

<The mayhem continues. Industry reports say that over 250 companies
are presently operational in India, and the number is expected to
double by Mar 2000. "Anybody can start this business.
All you need is a cousin in the US who can talk with the hospitals
and get you projects and a PC with proper communication links,"
says an enlightened soul. "The other advantage is the fact that
even among the Asians, Indians top the list in the medical
profession in the US. Even a fraction of their documentation being
done by their fellow-countrymen would throw current business
projections in MT haywire," another points out. That is all very
well, and I must have met over fifty industrialists each planning
to employ over 2000 MTs within the year, yet everybody is quite mum
on how they plan to 'manufacture' hoards of 'quality' MTs
overnight. So with some business strategies yet beyond my meager
comprehension, I stand on the sidelines pleading ignorance.>

08th Dec, 1999:

<INNOSOFT, a division of Innovations International Exim Ltd, in a
joint venture with Czerenda Consulting Inc, has started outsourcing
medical transcription work by deploying ``Stentura-Aided
Transcription (SCAT) technology.'' Considered an alternative to
typing voluminous amounts of dictation, reports and data, the new
SCAT technology allows people with machine shorthand writing skills
to input data at ``lightning-fast speeds'' directly into any
Windows applications. The SCAT technology can facilitate transfer
of spoken word into the written word in real-time. Mr. Czerenda
said writing speeds on the Stentura vary from 120 words per minute
with early transcriptionists producing 1,000 lines per day to 250
words per minute with experienced transcriptionists producing 5,000
lines per day. This is much more in comparison with the QWERTY
keyboardist where speeds vary between 25 wpm to 50 wpm with the an
output ranging from 250 to 800 lines per day. I really would like
to see this working.>

16th Feb 2000:

<There is a lot of hype being attached to MT being an IT enabled
service in India. To quote Mr Dertouzos(MIT), it's akin to calling
accounting as pencil-enabled services. This classification has
somehow propagated the misconception that MT is basically a data
entry job.

''It is critical that every MT company establishes a clear path to
attracting customers before doing anything else.'' says RamDas
Singh Khalsa, Project Manager Health ScribeIndia in an exclusive
interview to MT India.>

Sounds familiar? The more things change...

Cheers!!!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"
***********************************************************
A comprehensive textbook for MTs:

"Medical Transcription Made Easy" by Alok Jha & Priyanka Arora
     ~ A Macmillan India Publication

for details, see:
http://www.mtindia.org/mtme.htm

***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
------------------------

1) Going Global: Is It Good for the Transcription Business?

Does an offshore workforce pose a threat, or does it promise to
save the medical transcription industry? Pittsburgh-based Acusis is
an example of a company that considers both pricing and technology
as part of its competitive global business model. And as more
services consider the global picture, the concept of an
international partner has begun to take off. Spryance,
headquartered in Maynard, MA, is one such MTSO partner.

"As transcription needs grow, many U.S. transcription service
companies are too small to handle the sizeable volume created by
large health systems," Delbert L. Arrendale, president and CEO of
Arrendale Associates, likewise observed. "One solution to the MT
shortage is to provide 'back office' transcription support from the
global community."

Addressing quality concerns, Arrendale is quick to defend the back
office. "Indian transcription companies utilize the largest
English-educated and qualified middle class in the world," he
pointed out. "The successful Indian services employ highly trained
staff, with the majority being physicians, nurses and other
college-educated professionals."

http://www.advanceforhim.com/common/editorialsearch/viewer.aspx?FN=
03jul7_hip16a.html&AD=7/7/2003

2) Many HIPAA Wrinkles for At-Home, Offshore Business Associates

It is a growing trend to outsource medical transcription and
billing work, and some of it is going offshore to places as far
away as India and Pakistan. Even large established transcription
vendors use offshore resources with English competency.

Since most offshore companies are chartered outside the U.S., the
BA contract or other U.S. privacy law may be difficult to police
and therefore enforce.

http://www.imakenews.com/health-itworld/e_article000159662.cfm?x=a1
PSwKf,a17TK8JV

3) Conmen tap into BPO start-ups

Call it the great Indian wire trick. If you're a start-up,
sputtering and wriggling in the BPO jungle, you're bound to get
noticed. Watching your every move is the omnipresent 'consultant,'
with a line-up of 'customers.'

The popularity of business process outsourcing has given birth to a
new breed of conmen. Here's the trail: Often, entrepreneurs
starting a BPO are faced with a major handicap - the lack of
customers. The reason customers do not want to give work to a
start-up is because they only want to outsource to a company with a
track record of handling their work. This chicken-and-egg situation
has left a number of call centres and BPO companies struggling for
that first big assignment. The phenomenon is so widespread that a
new breed of consultants has emerged to 'solve' these problems.

The modus operandi is multi-pronged. Typically, the consultants
offer a large project with a job potential of a 1,000 to 2,000
agents in a call centre. All the entrepreneur has to do is open a
letter of credit (L/C) in the name of the consultant as a deposit
in order to begin the project.

Another method is for the consultant to suggest that the
entrepreneur begin a pilot project with, say, 50 seats, to be
followed by a larger contract. Again, an upfront payment to the
consultant has to kick off the process. The consultant naturally
wants upfront fees before 'introducing' the MNC company. Another
variant of this is the medical transcription scam, which has been
on for some time.

Though these scams have become common, industry bodies such as the
National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom)
are yet to take up the issue.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow
?msid=112792

4) Don't fear HIPAA police if rules deadline is missed

Federal enforcers won't scour the nation in search of physicians
who fail to comply with new electronic transaction standards by the
Oct. 16 deadline, government officials said at a recent meeting.
"We're not going to be out looking for you," said Leslie Norwalk,
deputy administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services. CMS is the agency responsible for enforcing the rule.

Instead, CMS will deal with noncompliance on a case-by-case basis,
she said. "We have no authority to do safe harbors, so you're not
going to see a blanket exception." She admitted that the agency
does not really have the resources to proactively seek out those
who have not complied with the regulation. Enforcement efforts will
be based on complaints from members of the medical community.

When CMS receives a complaint about a covered entity, such as a
physician, it will notify the entity in writing that a grievance
has been filed, the HHS guidance states. After notification, the
entity will have the opportunity to demonstrate compliance,
document its good-faith efforts to meet the standards and/or submit
a corrective action plan.

While the priority is to work with doctors to get them up to speed,
the flexible and understanding approach to enforcement will lessen
with time, Norwalk warned.

http://www.ama-assn.org/sci-pubs/amnews/pick_03/gvsa0811.htm

5) Dilbert looks at outsourcing

http://dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/images/dilbert20030801306
73.jpg
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. S. Would you like to share this  newsletter with your friends
or post  it on your site?  Please do! But also be sure to read
below:

All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2003
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd.  All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site
as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.

Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
----------------------------------------------------------------
Please DO NOT reply to this mail id to unsubscribe.

MT India Newsletter Archives and Subscription @:
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02 Aug 2003
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Integrating Speech Recognition...

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Dear Friends,

FOCUS is a multidimensional IT enabled services company serving the
niche segment of Healthcare vertical. Headquartered in Boston, USA,
Focus has its state of the art facility at Bangalore, India and
sales offices in Los Angeles & Tennessee. Established in 1999,
Focus today has grown to a 400 member strong organization with over
40 employees in the USA.

Focus has a service portfolio which includes Medical Transcription,
Medical Coding/ Billing, Software Development , Call
Center / BPO services, Healthcare Staffing services and
International Distance Education services for nurses.

A chat with Jayesh Nagda, CEO, on the occasion of Focus' 4th
Foundation Day:

MTIndia: What has been Focus' experience with speech recognition?
What role do you see speech recognition playing in MT in the near
future?

Jayesh: Focus's experience with Speech Recognition is very
encouraging. We are not only working on the SR enabled platform,
but we also have an in-house Software R&D team which is working to
integrate SR into our enterprise wide management software to
improve productivity and efficiency and help the beginner
MT improve and move up the ladder in his career to take on the role
of Proofer / Editor

MTIndia: How does Focus plan to overcome the acute shortage of
trained MTs?

Jayesh: As the saying goes, if you cannot buy, plant, so we have
now set up our own in-house training facility, which will not only
help in getting an adequate supply of well trained MTs but will
also help us achieve better quality of work by these trainees due
to inhouse grooming on the quality of end service / product
delivered to the client.

MTIndia: Do you feel ISO or other standards are relevant to an MT
company?

Jayesh: In the international arena, now the contracts will be won
not only on price competitiveness but also on quality and timely
delivery of services and ISO or other standards will definitely
help India MT Service provider companies to establish their
credentials with certification, be it ISO or any other. From this
perspective, standards will be very essential.

Cheers!!!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"
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MTIndia placements:
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*. QA with 4+ years experience?
*. Present gross salary over 2 lacs per annum?
*. Ready to relocate to Bangalore?

If you can implement, uphold, and maintain total customer
satisfaction with regard to quality, we have an exciting
opportunity for you! QAs from Bangalore are also welcome!

Apply in confidence to:
Anusha - anusha@..., before 05th Aug.

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NEWS AND VIEWS :
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1) Healthcare services find a burst of activity

The healthcare services sector is seeing a sudden burst of
activity. At one level, medical transcription (MT) firms are
aspiring to grow through valued added services. At another level,
business process outsourcing (BPO) services are gaining ground in
the healthcare sector.

The combination of escalating healthcare costs and growing
acceptance of outsourcing is pushing diverse opportunities towards
local MT and HBPO companies. New entrants into this space are
experimenting with services that promise to make healthcare BPO
(HBPO) the mother of all BPO services.

http://in.biz.yahoo.com/030726/77/26ejb.html

2) World Bank hails India's IT success

THE World Bank has lauded India's success in the information
technology sector. In its latest development policy review, the
World Bank said India had emerged as a leader among developing
countries in providing cross-border IT services.

Factors such as the existence of a skilled English speaking
workforce coming out of India's engineering schools and earning
lower wages than the European and US counterparts, low dependence
of IT on physical infrastructure, and introduction of current
account convertibility and easing of controls and regulations in
the early 1990s had contributed to the take-off of the IT sector,
it said. IT-enabled services such as back-office operations, remote
maintenance, accounting, public call centres, medical
transcription, insurance claims, database, and other bulk standards
processing, were also expanding rapidly in India.

At an earlier stage of development, the IT-enabled services had the
potential for broader job creation than IT itself, the bank said.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/bline/stories/2003073001560700.htm

3) ITeS firms in anti-poaching pact

About 14 IT-enabled services (ITeS) companies, including major call
centers in the city, have agreed to abide by a code of conduct to
check poaching of employees in the sector.

The code of conduct, designed by the ITeS task force of the
Hyderabad Software Exporters Association (Hysea), makes it
mandatory for an employee to serve for a minimum of one year in an
organisation before he or she changes the job. ''ITeS involves
investments. However, human capital is important too,'' Hysea
president Shakti Sagar said.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow
?msid=76510

4) Outsourcing no threat to US: Bill Gates

The outsourcing mantra continues to work its magic. Despite the
continuing backlash against outsourcing of both white-collar and
blue-colur jobs, it has become very much a part of life as
cost-concious US companies continue to outsource work to low cost
markets, including India.

Bill Gates, Chairman of the company said that Microsoft and other
US firms may be sending work overseas to cut costs, but the market
for software developer jobs in the US remains strong and needs more
qualified candidates.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow
?msid=104223

5) Hot new IT destinations

No, they're not Bangalore or Hyderabad. In a quest for lower costs
and staff, IT companies are rushing to a host of small towns like
Coimbatore, Mysore, Hubli and Kochi.Companies back the point. KG
Information Systems, Asia's largest medical transcription company,
is based in Coimbatore and employs over 1,000 people there.

S Sridharan executive director at KG, explains why the company
decided to locate itself at Coimbatore: "We have 25 engineering
colleges and over 1 lakh students pass out of them every year. And
the entry-level salary for BPO is only Rs 5,000, half of the Rs
10,000 in, say, Delhi or Bangalore. So there is a large talent pool
to tap in the city. In fact, companies from outside are coming to
recruit people here."

KG Information Systems received 60,000 applications for the 2,000
posts it sought to fill.

http://www.business-standard.com/ice/story.asp?Menu=7&story=19595

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The MTIndia Team
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